Daily Financial News - Mortgage | Real Estate | Stock Market

Stocks Gain as Dollar Falls - CNNMoney.com -- Stocks gained Wednesday, at the end of a choppy session, after the falling dollar boosted commodity stocks and a rise in wholesale inventories and an upgrade of 3M provided some optimism.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 51 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 index added 4 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq composite gained 11 points, or 0.5%.

Mortgage Apps Higher After Holiday, Refinances Drive Demand - This week's report indicated an increase in demand for new mortgage loans. The Market Composite Index rose 8.5%, the purchase index was 4.0% higher, and the refinance index jumped 11.1%. Refinances accounted for 74.4% of loan application activity this week, up from 72.1% in previous release. It appears that the general focus on the Thanksgiving holiday prevented borrowers from submitting new loan applications in the previous week, however, because mortgage rates had testing record lows, borrower interest was high and demand carried over into this week's data.