Mortgage rates moved higher to begin the new week as stocks and oil prices moved up from Friday afternoon's lows.   Today's increases cast a shadow on what had been shaping up to be a nice bounce last week.  That 'bounce' refers to 4 out of 5 days where rates fell moderately after rising rather quickly in the previous 2 weeks.  

If we want to quantify the battle, we could say that rates were trying to make it back to 3.625% last week, in terms of the most prevalent conventional 30yr fixed rate quote on top tier scenarios.  They were nearly there by Friday, but have now bounced up to remain in the 3.75%-3.875% range that dominates most of the past 3 weeks.

In terms of strategy, I was somewhat hesitant to take on any new risk based on last week's medium-slow improvements.  I would have liked to have seen some confirmation today, and we're clearly not getting it.  Depending on your level of risk-tolerance, we are arguably already back to levels that act as stop-loss warnings for those who chose not to lock last week.