A real snoozer today for bond markets... Yesterday afternoon's late-day strength was washed out by overnight weakness. MBS started the day perfectly in line with yesterday's 12:01pm price levels and held uneventfully sideways for most of the morning. All this in spite of weakness in Treasuries.
The potentially significant ISM Manufacturing data came in quite close to consensus and had limited impact. If anything, it resulted in some weakness for Treasuries, but not nearly as much for MBS. The latter made a brief run toward yesterday's highs into the noon hour, but as Treasury yields and stock prices bounced at afternoon lows, MBS pulled back from their highs and returned to the same sideways range that dominated the morning.
Markets look like they're waiting on the employment data and the bar is set fairly high to move for any other reason. Fireworks analogy in full effect.
MBS | FNMA 3.0 96-11 : -0-08 | FNMA 3.5 100-14 : -0-07 | FNMA 4.0 103-27 : -0-05 |
Treasuries | 2 YR 0.4341 : +0.0041 | 10 YR 2.7571 : +0.0331 | 30 YR 3.6068 : +0.0448 |
Pricing as of 4/1/14 4:20PMEST |