Thursday??'s bond market has opened down slightly after this morning??'s Employment report failed to deliver any significant surprises. The stock markets are reacting favorably with the Dow up 90 points and the Nasdaq gaining 6 points. The bond market is currently down 5/32, which will likely keep this morning??'s mortgage rates at yesterday??'s afternoon levels.

The Labor Department gave us today??'s only relevant economic news, saying that the unemployment rate remained at 5.5% last month when it was expected to slip to 5.4%. The report showed that 62,000 jobs were lost during the month, which nearly matched forecasts of 60,000. The report also revised May??'s job loss from 49,000 to 62,000, meaning that there was little difference between May??'s employment situation and June??'s. This lack of ???further deterioration??? is being taken as good news for stocks and helped prevent bonds from moving higher this morning.

Also worth noting was the Labor Department??'s weekly release of unemployment claim figures. They said this morning in a separate release that 404,000 new claims for benefits were filed last week. This was the first time that claims crossed the important benchmark of 400,000 since March. Claims exceeding 400,000 is believed to be a recessionary sign and indicates that the employment sector is weakening. However, this news is being overshadowed by the much more important monthly report that was released today rather than its typical Friday posting day.

Keep in mind that the bond market will close at 2:00 PM today and all markets will be closed tomorrow in observance of the Independence Day holiday. All markets will reopen Monday morning.

Next week is pretty light in terms of economic releases, especially compared to this week??'s data. There are only a couple of reports scheduled that are even relevant to bonds and mortgage rates, but none are considered to be of high-importance. Look for more details on next week??'s events in Sunday??'s weekly preview.