Mortgage rates fell this week after the Federal Reserve opted to keep its target range for the federal funds rate unchanged. Despite economic data pointing to a resilient U.S. consumer, the Federal Open Market Committee statement revealed new emphasis on the fact that tighter financial and credit conditions would likely weigh on economic growth and inflation.

The slowdown in economic activity in the rest of the world and conflict abroad have made U.S. Treasurys more attractive, helping to exert some downward pressure on Treasury yields — and the mortgage rates that tend to follow them – in recent days. Despite striking a dovish tone, which sent longer-term yields even lower, Chair Powell’s comments indicated that supply-side constraints could hinder a full rebalancing of the labor market, causing downward wage and price adjustments to slow and dragging out the process of returning to the Fed’s inflation target. All told, yields and mortgage rates benefitted from this week’s developments, but remain well above where they were even a month ago.

This week’s employment and wage growth data release will likely prompt investors to recalculate their inflation forecasts, causing large swings in mortgage rates.