Europe has been in the driver's seat throughout the day as far as domestic bond markets are concerned.  While Treasuries were doing fairly well as the overnight session began, it was news out of Europe that brought the lowest yields of the night.  At roughly 3:30am, the highest court in Europe finally got around to a ruling on the ECB's previous bond-buying plan (one it never used) the OMT ("Outright Monetary Transactions").   German Bund and Treasury yields hit their overnight lows shortly thereafter.  Even then, it was more of an artificial boost than a new source of momentum.  Markets would prefer to consolidate within the recent range ahead of the Fed.

Those overnight lows were re-tested once more after negative German economic data.  This gave us an opportunity to see where technical resistance (floors for yields) came into play.  In other words, after a certain point in a rally, we often see trading levels bounce at similar levels over varying periods of time.  For Treasuries today, that's clearly been 2.31%.  After bouncing there, bond markets calmly moved back up in yield, led by an even sharper move in Europe.  German Bund yields pushed back to their levels from before the European court ruling by the close, and that has marked the high end of the range. 

Left to their own devices, Treasuries and MBS (which have simply been following Treasuries during the domestic session) are looking reinvigorated with both making strong moves toward the best levels of the day since the European close.  If we break past those levels, it could turn into a pre-FOMC "lead off.'  Otherwise, we're just in a consolidation pattern--albeit with a positive skew--before making bigger decisions.

2015-6-16 consolidation


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
99-18 : +0-06
FNMA 3.5
102-32 : +0-06
FNMA 4.0
105-27 : +0-05
Treasuries
2 YR
0.6850 : -0.0210
10 YR
2.3240 : -0.0350
30 YR
3.0620 : -0.0260
Pricing as of 6/16/15 12:15PMEST

Morning Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
10:52AM  :  ALERT ISSUED: Negative Reprice Risk Increasing Slightly; Still Not Full-Blown
10:02AM  :  ALERT ISSUED: Drifting in an Unfriendly Direction; Early Reprice Risk Considerations
9:25AM  :  Here's a Good Chance to Set Yourself Apart

Live Chat Featured Comments
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
Ira Selwin  :  "Good morning. Just a quick heads up for any Encompass users that utilize Reporting. With the updates, some report settings (specifically milestones) may become checked/unchecked. I'd recommend going through your reports to make sure they are correct.. "
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS- US MAY HOUSING PERMITS 1.275 MLN UNIT RATE (CONSENSUS 1.100 MLN) VS APRIL 1.140 MLN UNIT RATE (PREV 1.140 MLN)"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS- US MAY HOUSING PERMITS +11.8 PCT VS APRIL +9.8 PCT (PREV +9.8 PCT)"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - US MAY HOUSING STARTS 1.036 MLN UNIT RATE (CONSENSUS 1.100 MLN) VS APRIL 1.165 MLN UNIT RATE (PREV 1.135 MLN)"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS- US MAY HOUSING STARTS -11.1 PCT VS APRIL +22.1 PCT (PREV +20.2 PCT)"
Christopher Stevens  :  "Bond market volatility is crazy. I remember the days of getting a rate sheet Monday morning for the week. "
Victor Burek  :  "but looking a lot like yesterday...bunds bottomed at .75 and been on the move higher since"
Christopher Stevens  :  "Another day of playing follow the Bund until German mrkt closes?"