by Calculated Risk on 12/20/2021 09:00:00 PM

From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage Rates Start Lower, But Could See Some Volatility This Week

For most lenders, mortgage rates edged slightly higher at the start of the holiday-shortened week. The exception would be among those lenders who made changes to their rate offerings on Friday afternoon in response to deteriorating market conditions. The unequivocal comparison would be with Friday morning's rates, in which case today's rates are higher.
...
Looking ahead, the bond market will be closed on Friday and open for only a half day on Thursday. Most mortgage lenders will not be updating rate sheets on Friday, and they will shy away from making big changes on Thursday unless massive market movement forces their hand.[30 year fixed 3.17%]
emphasis added

From CR on COVID (mostly focus on hospitalizations and deaths):

The CDC is the source for all data.

COVID Metrics
	Today	Week Ago	Goal
Percent fully Vaccinated	61.5%	---	≥70.0%1
Fully Vaccinated (millions)	204.1	---	≥2321
New Cases per Day3🚩	132,659	117,521	≤5,0002
Hospitalized3🚩	58,793	57,585	≤3,0002
Deaths per Day3🚩	1,169	1,131	≤502
1 Minimum to achieve "herd immunity" (estimated between 70% and 85%). 2my goals to stop daily posts, 37-day average for Cases, Currently Hospitalized, and Deaths 🚩 Increasing 7-day average week-over-week for Cases, Hospitalized, and Deaths ✅ Goal met.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the daily (columns) and 7-day average (line) of deaths reported.