Daily Mortgage Market Information

The mortgage market is simply treading water today as investors await Friday's August nonfarm payroll report.

  This morning's August consumer confidence report showed a modest improvement over the five-month low set last month and drew little more than a passing glance from market participants.   The modest rise in consumer's attitudes was really nothing to get excited about since it amounted to nothing more than a very small upswing from a very dismal month earlier level. 

Investors fretting over the pace of the economic recovery will be closely attuned to any tidbit of insight that may be available in the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's August 10^th meeting (scheduled for release at 2:00 p.m. today).  Though the document will be picked apart on word-by-word basis, investors are unlikely to find anything that will provide them with an improved perspective on the state of the economy or an indication of a meaningful shift in the Fed's current monetary policy strategy.   If my assessment proves accurate, this event will have little, if any discernable impact on the current trend trajectory of mortgage interest rates.