Aloha Friday,

Treasuries edged lower Friday after the government reported that unemployment rose to a 25-year high. The Labor Department said the economy lost 663,000 jobs in March, after a loss of 651,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate rose to 8.5% - its highest level since November 1983. March's tally was worse than the 658,000 job loss predicted by a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com. But many analysts were expecting the report to be even worse. The jobs report is a closely watched indicator of economic health. Bond prices typically rise when the economic outlook darkens as investors shy away from more risky assets.

What does this mean to us? When investors abandon the bond market to head to the stock market, the bond traders must offer a “higher yield” to attract investors to stay in bonds. Higher yields mean higher rates. Rates are up a touch this week as the bond market yields increased as investors headed for the stock market. The closing bell broke the 8,000 barrier on the Dow as of the end of business today.

Good news from our main mortgage investors. The underwriting time on purchase transactions has now taken a priority over refinances (as it always should have been). Our main investors have committed to underwriting times on purchases of no more than 5 days while refinances remain at 11 days. Portfolio and special types of loans are still at longer time periods so please call me for details.

I hope you have a great weekend. Let us know if we can help in any way.