There is nothing on the economic calendar for mortgage investors to chew on.
What little trading occurs in the mortgage market today will be largely dictated by trading activity in the stock markets. Higher stock prices will likely create a little upward pressure on mortgage rates while lower stock market prices will tend to be supportive of steady to perhaps fractionally lower rates.



Looking ahead to next week the headliner event will be Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's key-note address Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. CT on the "Near- and Long-term Prospects for the U.S. Economy." Mr. Bernanke will be speaking at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.



There are some analysts suggesting the Fed Chairman will publicly announce another round of central bank sponsored fiscal stimulus in the form of "QE3." The majority of major Wall Street investment houses are putting the probabilities this generally mortgage interest rate unfriendly event will occur at less than 40%. Most of these market participants believe the politics surrounding such a move together with major questions regarding the true effectives of "QE2" make it unlikely the Fed will try to deploy the same strategy a third time.



Also on tap for the coming week will be a $99 billion, three-part Treasury debt auction scheduled to run from Tuesday through Thursday. July New Home Sales numbers on Tuesday, July Durable Goods Orders on Wednesday and revised second-quarter Gross Domestic Product numbers on Friday will make up the total of the coming week's rather lackluster battery of macro-economic news.