Mortgage rates recovered a small portion of their recent losses today, but the average loan applicant might not even notice.  The 2 key ingredients of a mortgage rate (for the purposes of tracking their movement) are the rate itself (the "note rate") and the upfront costs tied to that rate.  The note rate and associated costs make up what many refer to as an "effective rate" (a number, expressed in interest rate form, that adjusts the actual note rate based on the implications of upfront cost changes.

It takes big market movement to change note rates, largely because lenders tend to offer rates in 0.125% increments.  As such, bond yields such as 10yr Treasuries need to be moving by about that much in order to see a similar change in mortgage rates.  That was the case last week as 10yr yields moved up nearly 0.25% in just a few days last week.  The average mortgage lender also moved up 0.25% on 30yr fixed rate quotes.

If rates took the elevator up, they're taking the stairs down.  Most borrowers will see a small adjustment toward lower upfront costs with the same interest rate they would have seen on Friday afternoon.  As I said last week, rates will need a very good reason to move lower in any significant way.  

This week's focal point is currently Thursday's inflation report (unless something else steps up to the plate).  If inflation is running hotter than expected, rates are at risk of remaining high or moving higher.  If inflation is weaker than expected, we could catch a bit of a bigger break, but it would take more than one day of rate-friendly economic data to undo all of last week's damage.