Mortgage Rates Move Higher After Stronger Economic Data

Mortgage rates are driven by the bond market and bonds consistently take cues from economic data.  Traders have been waiting on this Thursday's economic data ever since last Thursday, largely because there haven't been any major reports between now and then. The market constantly tries to adjust based on whatever it thinks it can know ahead of time.  That means that the median forecast among hundreds of economists for any given report tends to be reflected in the bond market well before the report in question is released.  Then on release day, the market reacts to deviations from the consensus. In today's case, all 3 of this morning's key reports were stronger than expected.   Jobless Claims dropped to 241k for the week.  Both last week's level and this week's forecasts were