Bond markets had been limping back toward slightly stronger territory heading into the afternoon. (Keep in mind, of course, that's stronger territory compared to the much weaker territory seen earlier this morning.)
Perhaps market participants were hoping for some more acknowledgement of recent turmoil from Yellen than they got. Yellen explicitly said she still expects the first rate hike to be appropriate some time in 2015, and further went on to justify the stance. She did this by drawing attention to her views on wage growth.
That's important because it's one of the key sticking points for those who think the Fed will hold off hiking in 2015. After a similar 'yeah, I see it' stance on inflation, it was clear that Yellen, indeed, was not missing anything about the big picture. Perhaps even more important was the fact that these acknowledgements about the big picture didn't sway the broader outlook.
With respect to Greece, anything 'new and different' arrived after markets were closed for the weekend. Various newswires came out suggesting that Greece was finally at the stage of compromisewith the Eurogroup. Without boring you with the details, I will say that these headlines did indeed have a different tenor than those seen over the past few months.
Tsipras was clearly "breaking bad news" to the Greek people, preparing them for the compromises that will be required in this weekend's negotiations in order to remain in the Eurozone. I don't think there was consensus among market participants that this much apparent progress would be made by today, and that's the reason (one of them) that we've given up so much ground over the past 2 days. Either way, the reaction on Monday morning could be equally fierce in either direction.
MBS | FNMA 3.0 99-10 : -0-12 | FNMA 3.5 102-23 : -0-10 | FNMA 4.0 105-21 : -0-07 |
Treasuries | 2 YR 0.6450 : +0.0600 | 10 YR 2.4010 : +0.0840 | 30 YR 3.1920 : +0.0760 |
Pricing as of 7/10/15 6:43PMEST |