Mortgage rates are highly volatile due to mixed economic signals and recent bank failures. This week, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate dropped from 6.43% to 6.39%. The Federal Reserve recently announced a quarter-point rate hike, which is likely to have little impact on mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are affected by the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds, which is affected by the Fed’s actions, what the Fed does and investors’ reactions. Recent bank failures are doing some of the Fed’s work on reducing inflation.