Trading activity in the mortgage market so far today has been thin and listless.
There is a little bit of "flight-to-quality" buying seeping into the mortgage market as a result of Ireland's weekend agreement on an international bailout to save their swooning banking system.
Concerns about the package's impact on the Irish government's balance sheet and fears that the debt contagion might spread to other struggling European nation's sent global investors scurrying to park their capital in the relative safe-haven of dollar denominated assets like Treasury debt obligations and mortgage-backed securities.
The timing of all this "flight-to-safety" stuff could not have come at a better time for Uncle Sam. The Treasury Department will be in the credit markets over the next three day's peddling a total of $99 billion worth of debt obligations.
First up is today's sale of a $35 billion stack of 2-year notes - a security almost "custom fit" for risk adverse investors seeking a safe place to park money. If today's auction goes as well as expected -- it will tend to be supportive of the near-term prospects for steady to fractionally lower mortgage interest rates.
Just as reminder -- the mortgage market will operate on a normal schedule on Wednesday, November 24th, it will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving Holiday and the mortgage market will operate on an abbreviated schedule on Friday, November 26th with an early close at 2:00 p.m. ET
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