Due to a Thanksgiving holiday-shortened week the calendar served up a veritable smorgasbord of economic news, setting the table for some bond-friendly trading. Our prior benchmark FNMA 6.0% mortgage bond finished 16bp higher to end at $102.31 while our new benchmark FNMA 5.5% bond ended 19bp higher to close at $101.69. The day's news continued to show the economy is a train-wreck with weekly jobless claims at recessionary levels; personal spending falling by 1.0%, the largest drop since the 9/11 terrorist attacks; durable goods orders dropping by 6.2%, the most in two years; and new home sales plunging to their lowest level in 18 years. Core PCE inflation moderated with a flat reading and annual rate of 2.1%. All of this was bond-friendly. Freddie Mac's weekly rate survey was also a sign of better times for the mortgage industry with conventional 30-year fixed-rate mortgages falling back below 6%. The stock market finished higher with the Dow and S&P 500 both moving up for the fourth consecutive session after enough investors went bottom fishing for bargains. Recent market action suggests we may be seeing the beginning of a bear market rally that could extend into the first quarter of 2009. The Dow surged 247 points to close at 8,726 while the broader S&P 500 Index picked up 30 points to finish at 887. The NASDAQ Composite Index bounced back with a 67 point gain to reach 1,532.