WOW! Recovery day...the FNMA 4.5% bond closed UP on the day by a cool 81 bps. This provided some relief for the interest rates and they got BETTER in the middle of the day today putting the 30 year fixed back into the 5.625% range.

Retail sales report actually showed that sales were UP when we exclude autos and initial jobless claims came in LOWER than expected at 601,000 vs. the 615,000 expected.

DOW was up 31 points today.

Fed report on the Mortgage Backed Securities purchase program shows investment by them at $23 billion for the week...

Oil was also UP today $1.35...and ended up at $72.68 for the session. Remember this? Oil continues to creep up as the "smell" of INCREASED DEMAND is out there. Also: there is a feeling that inflation is in the air so as mentioned earlier this week: Commodities tend to be an inflation friendly investment. Why? Because as "things" get more expensive: so do commodities. As commodities get "more valuable" the investment "value" grows and keeps up with inflation.

Have a great Eve!