[norwaypinesavage]

"I guess the news was not all that good, seeing how the market tanked in the last hour.... Can we say the (it's the)end of the re-fi boom?"

Using one hour of market activity as an indicator of anything is quite simplistic. There are far more factors than one activity report several hours earlier that deermines market performance (Unless, of course, you are only looking for bad news).

As for a re-fi boom, what is a re-fi boom? I realize that you are refering to an increase in refinancing when interest rates are low, but why is that a boom? What is booming? Who, other than the refinacncee is benefiting?

[JNB]

If you have to ask the question "Who is being helped by the re-fi boom", then you have no business debating on threads about the economy.

To make a long story short, ref-fis have almost single handedly given consumers the fuel to keep on spending at close to full blast in the last 2 years, and reduce their credit card debts, and with a steady downturn in rates from Fall of 2000 to last month, consumers have been able to re-fi multiple times.