If you haven't heard already (say, like 7 or 8 times from us--both before and after the fact), today's calendar was fairly light for bond markets.  In terms of scheduled economic data, there was nothing significant.  The slow nature of the day was reinforced right out of the gate as Japan was out on holiday (Japan is almost single-handedly responsible for the first several hours of overnight trading in Treasuries).

European trading didn't add much to the equation either.  Most of the movement came in response to  equities markets as well as a few headlines concerning the situation in Ukraine.  I'd hesitate, in general, to credit geopolitical headlines with too much movement at this point, however.  In the days that follow a big reaction to geopolitical risk, it tends to get too much credit for subsequent movements.  Sure, it's not as glamorous or cut-and-dry, but simple housekeeping for trading positions can be as much a motivation as anything on days like today.

MBS had a better day in terms of their recent underpeformance vs Treasuries (something we discussed as a probability last week).  To quantify that, Fannie 3.5s closed in slightly stronger territory than Friday's best levels while 10yr yields can't quite make the same claim.  Both ended the day just barely stronger after falling back from much stronger levels this morning.


MBS Pricing Snapshot
Pricing shown below is delayed, please note the timestamp at the bottom. Real time pricing is available via MBS Live.
MBS
FNMA 3.0
98-21 : +0-03
FNMA 3.5
102-16 : +0-02
FNMA 4.0
105-21 : +0-02
Treasuries
2 YR
0.4919 : +0.0119
10 YR
2.4692 : -0.0148
30 YR
3.2579 : -0.0341
Pricing as of 7/21/14 5:36PMEST

Today's Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
1:23PM  :  ALERT ISSUED: Bond Markets Slide After European Close; Negative Reprice Risk Considerations
10:47AM  :  Bond Market Gains Accelerate as Stocks Slide
9:01AM  :  Bond Markets Hold Gains Through Weekend as Global Tensions Intensify

MBS Live Chat Highlights
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
Jay Rodriguez  :  "Tony, IRRL just can't have a PI increase of more than 20%, or else Vet has to Credit Qualify."
Tony Cardinal  :  "VA IRRL question for anybody...does the P&I have to have a 5% payment reduction, like a FHA loan?"
Matthew Graham  :  "neither really. In general, I think closing price gets more credence from the analytical community"
Hugh W. Page  :  "MG do you lend more credence to the closing price or intraday high or low? Seems like the latter? Thoughts"
Matthew Graham  :  "Yeah, I think that's because we're fairly near the 'stably held' highs of the year whereas the absolute highs were more spiky and brief. Should be easy to see by expanding chart to a 6-month view and using candlesticks to see each day's trading range."
Michael Mitchell  :  "Thanks... Based on lender pricing- Feels closer than that..."
Matthew Graham  :  "103-14"
Michael Mitchell  :  "MG- Perspective- Best price this year on the 3.5?"