Wednesday lived up to the hype, which we suggested was overly downplayed by the time the key events hit.  Then again, 10yr yields were still under 2% and Fannie Mae 3.5 MBS were still over their 103-10 pivot by the end of the day, so maybe the "downplayers" have a point, although it would be more tenable if the weakness hadn't extended in the overnight session.  10yr yields crested the 2% mark and are trading around 2.02 at the moment.   Or maybe we're all wrong and Thursday is the big day!

There is, in fact, a lot going on today...  Although Bernanke will deliver a carbon copy of yesterday's Humphrey Hawkins testimony, the Q&A portion remains a contender for market moving hints.  Two Other Fed voters will speak, both potentially doing so while Bernanke is still answering the Senate's questions.  Wednesday's cage-match was 3 hours of blood, sweat, and Ron Paul holding up silver coins asking Bernanke if he shops for his own Groceries.  If today's goes for 3 hours as well, then Bernanke's 10am start time would allow for Fed Gov Raskin at 1030am and Lockhart at 1230am to hit the wires before The Senate finishes the Q&A.  For the sake of everyone's sanity we hope it's not 3 hours again. 

But we digress...  Well before FOMC-related considerations, there will be a glut of economic data, some more important than others.  It's nicely broken down into two time slots at 8:30am and 10:00am.  (Incidentally, we consider 10am economic data to occur "before" 10am Bernanke as, those who tuned into Wednesday's speech are well-aware, nothing will really happen until after the introductory formalities and moreover, the Q&A begins).

Each time slot has a winner and loser in terms of the more significant potential market mover.  It's a closer fight in the 830am time slot with Personal Consumption Expenditures duking it out with weekly Jobless Claims.  Adjusted consumption is expected to be much higher than the previous reading and Real Personal Spending is seen moving from a negative 0.1 to +0.3.  Jobless Claims stood at 351k last week and today's estimate is a still-rosy, but slightly higher 353k, and a minuscule rise in continuing claims.

The 10am duel is no contest, with ISM Manufacturing heartily trumping Construction Spending.  The forecast for the ISM report calls for a very small increase, however, to 54.6.  With all the factory data already on the tape this week, the results would have to miss or beat big in order for markets to register much of a response.  Construction spending is even less likely to shake things up, but is expected to show a decrease from 1.5 to 1.0, so we suppose something higher than 1.5 could maybe, possibly add fuel to any economically bullish fires that were already burning, but that's being kind.

MBS Live Econ Calendar:

Week Of Mon, Feb 27 2012 - Fri, Mar 2 2012

Time

Event

Period

Unit

Forecast

Prior

Actual

Mon, Feb 27

10:00

PENDING HOME SALES

Jan

%

+1.0

-3.5

+2.0


Pending homes index

Jan

--

--

95.1(R)

97.0

 

Tue, Feb 28

08:30

DURABLE GOODS

Jan

%

-1.0

+3.0

-4.0


Non-Defense Excluding Aircraft

Jan

%

0.4

+3.1

-4.5


excluding defense

Jan

%

-1.0

3.5

-4.5


excluding transportation

Jan

%

0.0

2.2

-3.2

09:00

CASE SHILLER 20 City

Dec

%

-0.5

-0.7

-0.5


CaseShiller 20 (Not Seasonally Adj.)

Dec

%

-1.0

-1.3

-1.1


CaseShiller 20 (annual)

Dec

%

-3.7

-3.7

-4.0

10:00

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE

Feb

--

63.0

61.1

70.8

Wed, Feb 29

07:00

MBA MORTGAGE INDEX

w/e

--

--

766.1

763.6


Mortgage market: change

w/e

%

--

-4.5

-0.3


MBA Purchase Index

w/e

--

--

161.8

175.1


Mortgage refinance index

w/e

--

--

4322.0

4225.4


Refinancing: change

w/e

%

--

-4.8

-2.2


MBA Purchase: change

w/e

%

--

-2.9

8.2


MBA 30-yr mortgage rate

w/e

%

--

4.09

4.07

08:30

REAL GDP

Q4

%

2.8

2.8

+3.0


PCE prices

Q4

%

0.7

0.7

+1.2


GDP sales

Q4

%

1.0

0.8

+1.1


GDP deflator

Q4

%

0.4

0.4

+0.9


Core PCE Prices

Q4

%

1.1

1.1

1.3

09:45

CHICAGO PMI

Feb

--

61.3

60.2

64.0

10:00 BERNANKE: FOMC's Semiannual Report to House Financial Services Committee
14:00 Beige Book

Thu, Mar 1

08:30

PERSONAL INCOME

Jan

%

0.4

0.5

--


Consumption, adjusted

Jan

%

0.4

0.0

--


PCE price index

Jan

%

0.2

0.1

--


Core PCE price index

Jan

%

0.2

0.2

--


Real Personal Spending

Jan

%

0.3

-0.1

--

08:30

INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS

w/e

k

353

351

--


Continued jobless claims

w/e

ml

3.40

3.392

--

10:00

ISM MANUFACTURING PMI

Feb

--

54.6

54.1

--


ISM Mfg Prices Paid

Feb

--

58.0

55.5

--

10:00

CONSTRUCTION SPENDING

Jan

%

1.0

1.5

--

Fri, Mar 2

09:45

ISM-New York index

Feb

--

--

536.5

--