Fortune-Telling 8-Ball says: "The Outcome is Uncertain..."

That's a big "DUH!"

Rates have climbed over the end of last week and again today... I would say to around 6% with a point for loan amounts <$417K or 6.125% with a point for up to $567,500 – both 30-year fixed with 20% down.

The market is in a hyper-reactionary state at the moment; the fuel for the increased rates-- and I don't mean oil *ba-dum CRASH* -- at the tail end of last week and was directly related to some level of confidence in the gov’t’s actions to stem the losses in the financial markets related to Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, and others. And today, the increase in rates was caused by a lack of confidence in the same. So we get excited about it, money flows into the stock market (out of bonds/mortgages), and forced rates up; we get worried about it and money flows out of the stock market, out of the bond market, and into oil? Good grief!

There's still a chance that bonds will get last-minute bids and will be set up for some relief tomorrow... assuming the market gets neither-excited-nor-fearful of any changes or rumors of changes going on currently. They would also have to resist any desire to push gold to some new record in either direction.

Clear as mud? I guess the 8-ball was right...

The long and short of it is this: buckle your seatbelts, it’s going to get bumpy in the short-term. There are some economic releases toward the end of the week that may give the market some more useful guidance but until then we’re probably going to bounce around directionless…