Bonds sold off again today amid a total absence of economic data and meaningful headlines.  Tradeflows were left in control and the biggest consideration continues to be the corporate bond market.  After another massive deal came through today, 2015 has now overtaken 2014's pace as the biggest on record for corporate bond issuance. 

Beyond the housekeeping-type trades associated with the corporate issuance process, we can also see plenty of defensiveness leading up to the next 3 days.  These contain big-ticket events including ADP and ISM Services tomorrow, ECB on Thursday, and a very important NFP on Friday (because it has the chance to confirm or moderate the bullish tone of the previous report).

The day began with bonds trading mostly sideways, just outside yesterday's weakest levels.  It was decent enough until the afternoon hours when corporate bond-related tradeflows ($8 bln Exxon deal) started assaulting the screens.  There was, once again, the unhappy combo of investors selling to make room to buy Exxon's offering, and the firms handling Exxon's offering selling to hedge the rate exposure on the deal.  Long story short, the afternoon saw MBS and Treasuries leak to the weakest levels of the day with plenty of negative reprices along the way.