At one point today, there were three apparently important events dominating the newswires simultaneously.  These included the Fed Chair's congressional testimony, the Cohen congressional testimony, and--you guessed it--congressional testimony from Lighthizer on US/China trade policy.  Mortgage rates are determined by the bond market, and the bond market could make a case for caring about any of these three events.  Interestingly enough, almost all of the day's bond market movement arrived BEFORE any of the testimonies.

Unfortunately, the movement in question was bad for rates, but the damage was fairly minimal.  The average lender is still able to quote the same rates as yesterday, but the upfront costs would be slightly higher.

Tomorrow, rates will have another chance to pay attention to the news when the 4th quarter GDP revision is finally released after being delayed by the government shutdown.  Analysts are expecting the number to come in at 2.3% versus an initial estimate of 3.5%.  If it manages to come in much higher than that, it could put additional upward pressure on rates.