Friday Market UpDate

Friday's bond market opened in negative territory after some of this morning's economic data revealed stronger than expected activity. The stock markets are also contributing to the bond weakness with gains of 64 points in the Dow and 15 points in the Nasdaq. The stock market is currently down 11/32, but we should still see a slight improvement in this morning's mortgage rates due to strength during trading late yesterday.

August's Personal Income and Outlays data was released early this morning. It showed that personal income rose 0.5% last month while spending rose 0.4%. Both of these readings were larger increases than what analysts had forecast, making them negative news for the bond market and mortgage rates. The data indicates that consumers had more money available to spend and spent more than what many market participants had thought. This fuels economic activity, making long-term securities such as mortgage bonds less attractive to investor