U.S. Interest Rates in Flux This Week

U.S. mortgage rates inched higher this week on both fixed and adjustable rate loans, an industry group said Thursday.

Bankrate.com said the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose to 6.89 percent from 6.87 percent last week.

Mortgage rates spent much of the past week treading water, but that all changed once Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before the Senate Banking Committee Wednesday morning, Bankrate.com said in a statement. Almost immediately, Bernanke’s words soothed investors concerned about the Fed raising interest rates too far. Yields on government securities started to fall, and mortgage rates declined right along with them.

However, the decline still left rates fractionally higher than last week.