Hey there!

FNMA 4.5% is UP on the day about 56 bps and at $99.62. "Bargain hunters" are carrying this bond higher after severe pricing deterioration over the last three sessions.

BOUNCE: We expect some "bounce" after an investment severely drops in pricing as we saw for the first 3 days of this week. (As the pricing drops...the investment looks like a bargain! We see "bounce" in the Dow among other places when there is a rapid deterioration. "Bounce" is usually followed by another decline as investors preserve their profit by selling again.)

Rates steady for now in the 5.375% range for the 30 year fixed.

Initial Unemployment claims fell all the way to 522 thousand who put in their initial claim for unemployment. This was better than expected and much lower than the weekly figure has been in the recent past...but still dire.

The manufacturing index for the Philadelphia area came in showing much lower than expected...which was a bit of a disappointment after better than expected numbers in the manufacturing sector earlier this week.

The Dow is currently up 90 points on the day.

Economist Nouriel Roubini made some very positive comments today and he is predicting that we will see an end to the "recession" by the end of the year. This will NEED to be a POSITIVE growth of our GDP...and I am not entirely convinced yet. I like to be an optimist though and readily recognize that he is much more qualified than I am to make that statement. Hope for the best.

Have a great afternoon!

Chad