Mortgage rates were decisively lower today, following a massive market movement on news of new tariffs to be imposed on Mexico.  In general, trade wars are economically negative.  They hurt stocks and help bonds.  When bonds are improving, it means bond prices are rising and yields (another word for "rates") are falling.  Long-story short, investors are pricing-in a new reality where trade tensions do measurable damage to the global economy.  This not only forces money out of stocks and into bonds, but it also implies lower inflation and increased odds of Fed rate cuts.

The specific implication for mortgage rates was quite good today.  Mortgages have been lagging the moves seen in Treasury yields, for the most part.  That was NOT the case today--at least for the lower portion of the rate spectrum.  The average lender improved by the biggest amount of the past several weeks with top tier scenarios now easily seeing quotes of 3.875%.  That said, different lenders have responded to the market movement at drastically different paces.  Volatility tends to have that effect.  If the bond market stabilizes at the beginning of next week, we'll see some more cohesive pricing between lenders.