Mortgage Rates Rose Less Than Expected After Employment Data

Today brought the hotly anticipated jobs report.  This is the “official” job count and unemployment rate data for the U.S. and no other report has as much consistent power to cause volatility in the rate market.  Today’s was particularly important because a perpetually decent labor market is the main justification for the Fed to wait and see if tariffs have an impact on inflation before proceeding with additional rate cuts.

In other words, if unemployment were rising, the Fed would be cutting rates.  Not only did today’s report show no rise in unemployment, there was actually a decline from 4.2 to 4.1%, falling well short of an expectation for an increase to 4.3%. In addition, the job count rose to 147k–a notable difference from the forecast consensus of 110k.

With…