Rate Watch 12-24-2008 Christmas Eve

Alert to Lock.
Stocks and bonds slightly positive during this light volume trading day. Oil currently trading at $37.62, -$1.36. Mortgage applications soared last week running 124% ahead of activity seen during the same week last year.
Initial Jobless Claims jumped by 30,000 to 586,000 and the four-week average of continuing claims rose to 4.32 million, which is the most since December 1982. Also on the news front, Personal Spending fell 0.6% in November amid mounting job losses and economic uncertainty. While this number was bad, it was a bit better than expected.