At the time I am writing this mortgage interest rates are a little less than 1/8th of a percent lower than they were last Friday.

This was a short weeks as Monday was Christmas Eve and Tuesday Christmas Day. This week's focus was on the approaching Fiscal Cliff coming up Tuesday. Our leaders in Washington have still not come to an agreement on how to avoid it. The house has called an emergency session on Sunday night to try to get something passed, but at this point it is looking unlikely. If we do go over the cliff they can still pass legislation that would be retroactive preventing a tax hike on a majority of Americans.

There were a few other economic reports that came out this week, but they were ignored by the markets as all the focus was on Cliff. Markets will be open on New Year's Eve, but closed on New Year's Day. If we avoid the cliff expect rates to go up, and vice versa.