Treasuries began the overnight session moving lower in yield with Asian equities markets once again selling-off.  Shortly after Europe came online, the rally reversed, but never in an exceptionally threatening way. 

Considering that Europe was the driving force behind bond market weakness this morning, it's no surprise to see domestic bond markets improve after the European close at 11am.  That particular close is equivalent to Treasuries' 3pm close and both are focal points of their respective afternoons (in fact, 11am here = 3pm there... no coincidence).  Even though trading continues, it's not uncommon to see momentum shift after these initial closes.  Indeed 11am has marked a shift in bond market momentum every day this week.  Today's happened to be positive.

The rally was helped along by uncertainty over the unexpected shutdown of the New York Stock exchange, but by a trivial amount.  The afternoon's true positive impact came in the form of the FOMC Minutes.  By the time we consider that these minutes were from a meeting that took place three weeks ago (and that the situation has arguably deteriorated since then), we can more easily consider that the Fed might not be so quick to raise rates in 2015. 

Trading in Fed Funds Futures suggests the same with September now being almost completely off the table, and the average rate expectation for January 2016 hitting it's highest levels yet.  The following chart shows Fed Funds Futures for September and January.  The higher the lines, the lower the Fed Funds Rate is expected to be in that month.  Anything over 99.75 means that chances are not good that rates will have risen by that month.  The sharp move higher in the teal line means that January is now just barely in the lead in terms of probable rate lift-off (which may simply be a change from "0-.25%" to simply ".25%")

There's only one caveat to all the positivity.  Quite simply, Bonds didn't break any new ground today, despite all the positive inputs.  10yr yields bottomed out at intraday lows of 2.18 on both days.  In terms of the domestic hours, today's trading range remained inside yesterday's highs and lows.  That's usually the sign of a market that's waiting for something before making up it's mind on the next move.  Greece is the frontrunner in terms of what we're probably waiting on.  We should know much more by Monday in that regard.