The stock market is down this morning in early trading and mortgage bonds have seen an influx of cash in the past 48 hours, stemming the bleeding from the prior 6 trading sessions.

What's new?  Initial Jobless Claims revealed their weakest numbers since March.  Ford posted nearly a $9 billion loss as SUV's aren't selling.

We'd posted a piece a few weeks back about the dollar and oil costs.

We received a lot of feedback on that piece, much of it from mortgage bankers who disagreed with our assessment.  In the face of an improving Dollar, softening oil prices, and a bond recovery, we are indeed looking at a lower rate environment--in the short term--than we had during this recent run-up in energy and food prices.

Stay tuned, it's been volatile.  Bonds remain 130 basis points below that 200-day moving average so there's a lot of room for recovery.

Chicago mortgage rates are approximately 80 basis points better than the same time yesterday and FHA mortgage rates are similarly improved.