The Jobs Report was released today and while it looks good for the overall economy it was not good for mortgage rates.

 The Labor Department reported this morning that there were only 11,000 jobs lost in November.  This number is far less than the 125,000 job losses that were expected.  And then they also announced that in the last two months there were actually 159,000 fewer jobs lost than were originally reported after revisions were made. The economy has now lost jobs for 23 straight months but the small decline in November indicates the nation could begin generating jobs soon. Many economists think it will happen in the first quarter of next year.

And the final piece of good news was that the Unemployment Rate improved to 10.% .

All of this data is building economic optimism on Wall Street.  While this is great for the overall good of the economy and for stocks - it is awful for mortgage rates.  As I have mentioned in the past, good news is good for the economy, bad for rates.  The mortgage market just got slammed this morning and there is a massive sell off of bonds pushing mortgage rates higher. 

Now let's keep this in perspective... yes rates moved higher quickly this morning and are now anywhere from .125% to .375% higher than yesterday.  But are rates HIGH?  Absolutely not.  Today just illustrates how volatile the market can be and how quickly it can move.