Following a noisy couple of weeks, mortgage rates calmed this week, trending slightly lower ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Bond yields, which drive mortgage rates, rose modestly early in the week on news of another COVID-19 vaccine candidate. However, news that several of the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending programs created as part of the CARES act may not be extended into 2021 caused yields to slip back down. Increasingly it appears that markets are more concerned about political, epidemiological and policy-driven developments when determining their appetite for risk, weighing them more heavily than traditional economic data releases.

Each of these three topics could see meaningful developments in the near future, suggesting that mortgage rates could easily see notable shifts in the coming weeks, even as broader market activity eases up into the holiday season.