Mortgage rates escalated this week, gaining much of what they had given back the first three weeks of the year.
Exuberance in the stock market drew investors away from bonds and into equities, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average past the 20,000 mark for the first time. Less than a week into the new administration, investors are buying into what President Trump said he would do on tax cuts, deregulation and infrastructure spending.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.41 percent Monday before making big jumps Tuesday and Wednesday to reach 2.53 percent. Because mortgage rates tend to follow the movement of long-term bonds, they also climbed higher.
