While the "day before the day with huge potential volatility" occasionally surprises us with a relatively large preemptive move, we're still waiting on the potentially hugely volatile day itself (then for another one two days later).  Wednesday and Friday clearly have huge potential, and the many market events contributing to that potential will likely keep today hesitant to try anything funny.  The key data--Consumer Confidence--is a bit more potent than yesterday's Pending Home Sales, and combined with the fact that we're one day farther into the week, it's not unreasonable to expect a more active session.  But given that we're also one day closer to Wednesday, unless we get one of those "lead-offs" (a big one doesn't seem as likely here), Today remains in a league with Monday, rounding out two days of warm ups before the big game begins tomorrow.  

Long term Consumer Confidence:

Long Term 10yr Treasury Yields:

Case Shiller Home Prices are out at 9am and while housing data is relatively interesting at the moment, the data in question is from the month of May.  The transactions informing that data still haven't made it to the time frame of originations that would be subject to higher rates, thus making any serious examination of rising rates' impact on prices a bit premature.  Consequently, it's not nearly as interesting as the next two months.

MBS Live Econ Calendar:

Week Of Mon, Jul 29 2013 - Fri, Aug 2 2013

Time

Event

Period

Unit

Forecast

Prior

Mon, Jul 29

10:00

Pending homes index

Jun

--

--

112.3

Tue, Jul 30

09:00

Case Shiller Home Prices

May

%

2.3

2.5

10:00

Consumer confidence

Jul

--

81.1

81.4

Wed, Jul 31

07:00

Mortgage market index

w/e

--

--

513.3

08:15

ADP National Employment

Jul

k

177

188

08:30

GDP Final

Q2

%

1.1

1.8

09:45

Chicago PMI

Jul

--

53.3

51.6

14:00

FOMC Announcement

N/A

%

--

--

Thu, Aug 1

08:30

Initial Jobless Claims

w/e

k

345

343

08:58

Markit Manufacturing PMI

Jul

--

--

53.2

10:00

Construction spending

Jun

%

0.4

0.5

10:00

ISM Manufacturing

Jul

--

52.0

50.9

Fri, Aug 2

08:30

Personal Consumption

Jun

%

0.4

0.3

08:30

Personal income

Jun

%

0.4

0.5

08:30

Non-farm payrolls

Jul

k

184

195

08:30

Unemployment rate mm

Jul

%

7.5

7.6

08:30

Average workweek hrs

Jul

hr

34.5

34.5

10:00

Factory orders mm

Jun

%

2.2

2.1

* mm: monthly | yy: annual | qq: quarterly | "w/e" in "period" column indicates a weekly report

* Q1: First Quarter | Adv: Advance Release | Pre: Preliminary Release | Fin: Final Release

* (n)SA: (non) Seasonally Adjusted

* PMI: "Purchasing Managers Index"