Update #4/ Week of November 30, 2009

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Thursday! Equity markets are relatively flat this morning after some early choppiness. Traders and investors are excited about Bank of America wanting to pay back the $45B in TARP funds forced upon, excuse me, I mean LENT to them last year in an effort to rescue the banking industry. Seems Ken Lewis is wanting to retire after all this, and BofA is having a hard time attracting a viable leader with the restricted compensation it has to offer under the terms of the TARP loan. This is a positive sign for the economy, and the financial industry in particular.

Thursday is the day for initial jobless claims report from the previous week. The week ending November 28 saw 457K initial jobless claims, less than the 480K anticipated. The 4-week average moves down from 495,500 to 481,250 and continuing claims rise to 5.47M – besting the 5.40M expected. Revised productivity numbers for Q3 were scaled back a bit, but these reports have done little to move the markets in one direction or the other. The European Central Bank (their version of our Fed) voted to leave their benchmark lending rate unchanged at 1.0% -- no surprise there.

The US dollar continues to drive the market – it was weaker overnight, but is gaining strength this morning. Prices on our mortgage rebates have backed up quite a bit. This will give us a chance to get the pig going through the python and be ready for the next wave of loans. I will be in the office all day today. Please call me here or email me if I can help you with a pricing question or loan scenario. Have a terrific Thursday!