Rate Watch 1-30-2009

Alert to Lock:

Volatile sideways trading, Mortgage backed securities got hammered yesterday.

This morning's 4th Quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers showed the economy contracted in the 4th quarter but better than estimates, although the slowest pace in 26 years. Consumer Sentiment was near estimates while the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for December was slightly lower than expectations.The Fed reported yesterday that they purchased $16.8B in Mortgage Backed Securities from January 22 through January 28.