Yesterday's ISM data may have sparked some hope for a long-shot, come-from-behind, Cinderella story victory for a weak economy making an argument against a December rate hike.  In simpler terms, on the off chance that the rest of this week's data was as bad as yesterday's, maybe the Fed wouldn't hike rates after all. 

To be sure, that was a very long shot indeed.  It would have required a perfect storm of lucky breaks for bond markets, including the worst week of economic data imaginable and a surprising absence of action in tomorrow morning's ECB announcement.  Still, traders weren't overly eager to sell bonds until such a long shot could be ruled out. 

This morning's ADP data ruled it out.  Bonds have been in sell mode ever since.  The pace hasn't been extreme, but it's sapped about half of yesterday's gains so far. 

Yellen's speech hasn't done anything to alter the bigger picture.  The Fed chief said that although the natural interest rate is likely lower than it was in the past, that holding rates too low for too long risks overshooting targets and creating instability.  In other words, the hike is on (still).  After we see the ECB Announcement and NFP, there could be some course correction as far as trading levels are concerned, but it would take quite some doing for those events to damage the rate hike outlook.


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
100-18 : -0-08
FNMA 3.5
103-22 : -0-07
FNMA 4.0
106-05 : -0-06
Treasuries
2 YR
0.9460 : +0.0350
10 YR
2.1880 : +0.0430
30 YR
2.9210 : +0.0180
Pricing as of 12/2/15 2:16PMEST

Morning Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
12:33PM  :  ALERT ISSUED: Bonds Back to Weakest Levels After Yellen
10:31AM  :  Heads-Up On The Negative Trend
8:37AM  :  Bond Markets Weaker After ADP Beat

Live Chat Featured Comments
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
Matthew Graham  :  "Newsflash for Lockhart... Simply TALKING about hiking rates this year has pushed mortgage rates far enough higher that we've easily already seen the drop off in refi apps. I'm not sure I can imagine a more ignorant statement from a Fed official. This is really inexcusable."
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS- LOCKHART SAYS ANY IMPACT ON AUTO OR HOME LENDING WOULD NOT BE FELT UNTIL MUCH LATER IN THE TIGHTENING CYCLE"
Sung Kim  :  "very very funny, as if he forgot ECON 101"
Sung Kim  :  "funny statement because when fed increases that creates savings and slowdown"
Matthew Graham  :  "As the British say, 'not bloody likely'"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - FED'S LOCKHART SAYS MARKETS SHOULD CONSTRUE LIFTOFF AS POSITIVE SIGNAL AND SIGN TO SPEND AND INVEST"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - US ADP NOV PAYROLLS INCREASE LARGEST SINCE JUNE"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - LOCKHART: FED HAS MET ITS CRITERIA OF "FURTHER IMPROVEMENT" IN LABOR MARKETS FOR RAISING RATES, ECONOMY NEAR FULL EMPLOYMENT"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - REUTERS CONSENSUS FORECAST FOR ADP PAYROLL CHANGE FOR NOV WAS FOR INCREASE OF 190,000 JOBS"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - ADP NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT REPORT SHOWS U.S. EMPLOYMENT INCREASED BY 217,000 PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS IN NOVEMBER"
Nathan Miller  :  "well... yesterday was pretty sweet"