“JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT…THEY PULL ME BACK IN.” Al Pacino in the 1990 film, The Godfather III And if Bonds and home loan rates thought they were out of the days of volatility…they got pulled right back in, as last week brought daily price swings of almost historic proportions. For the week overall, fixed home loan rates improved by about .25%.

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“THE BEST WAY TO APPRECIATE YOUR JOB IS TO IMAGINE YOURSELF WITHOUT ONE.” Oscar Wilde And unfortunately, last Friday’s Jobs Report indicated that many more Americans than expected are not just imagining themselves without a job, they truly are without a job.

The Unemployment Rate jumped up to 5.0% from 4.7%, and new job growth in December was reported at a paltry 18,000 jobs…with private-sector job growth actually falling by 13,000, the largest private sector drop in more than four years. And here’s an interesting note - Hourly Earnings actually moved higher than expected. While this seems somewhat contradictory to a slowing jobs number, perhaps it means that employers are attempting to save money by paying more dollars to fewer workers, rather than hiring more staff.

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