Mortgage interest rates were mostly flat this past week on mixed economic data. Economic data better than expected included December Building Permits, December Leading Economic Indicators, and continuing jobless claims. Economic data weaker than expected included December Housing Starts, weekly jobless claims, and the January Philadelphia Fed Business Index. On the inflation front, the December Producer Price Index (PPI), a measure of wholesale prices, was up 0.2% on expectations that it would be unchanged. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, core PPI was unchanged on expectations that it would be up 0.1%. Year over year PPI was up 4.4% and core PPI was up 0.9%.