For the end of any given day, bond markets closed at their best levels since April.  If we look at only month-end closing levels, today was the best close in a year.  The amount of ground covered from start to finish was also the biggest in a year, fully engulfing the previous 3 months of weakness.  We'll talk more about what that might indicate from a technical perspective next week, but suffice it to say, we're going out (of January) on a higher note (or low note, if we're talking about rates).

What's up with all this? 

Nothing to do with GDP data, or Chicago PMI, for that matter.  Data, in general, continues to take a back seat to the bigger-picture market considerations (and that's saying something, considering data should be one of the biggest considerations for markets).

Today's show was stolen by the Bank of Japan, which surprised the world by cutting rates into negative territory.  Stocks and bonds both rallied on the news and the momentum continued into the domestic session.  Some of this may well have been due to month-end buying needs among asset managers, so we'll need to keep a close eye on Monday morning's trading.

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 3.5
104-21 : +0-00
Treasuries
10 YR
1.9230 : -0.0620
Pricing as of 1/29/16 5:10PMEST
Today's Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
2:12PM  :  ALERT ISSUED: Negative Reprice Risk Increasing For 1 or 2 Lenders
10:28AM  :  Under Pressure After Opening Strong, but Resilient
MBS Live Chat Highlights
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
Andrew Haynes  :  "low rates for infinity...!"
Andrew Haynes  :  "looking like this year is shaping up to be similar to last year..."
Timothy Baron  :  "It's not a violation until CFPB says it is. For that reason I agree with TR's idea. They need to hear about it a lot more and realized they need to do something about it."
Charles Tadros  :  "either way funneling consumers a certain direction i feel is violation"
Charles Tadros  :  "even that is risky i think"
David Gaffin  :  "That is ok to me Philip if they can still apply and close with someone else."
Timothy Baron  :  "Unfortunately as things stand now, builder are sellers, and sellers can write all kinds of things into the contract."
philip zajicek  :  "There is a builder here in Boulder that requires the buyer to submit a loan app to their lender prior to going under contract."
David Gaffin  :  "Folks, have any of you run into a builder requiring a pre-approval by any of 3 lenders using only the 3 LOs assigned, and if you don't they won't allow a Financing Contingency in the P & S?"
Ted Rood  :  "3.0 coupon is currently over 100 bps above the 25, 50, and 100 day moving averages for those of us who value moving averages."
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - FED'S KAPLAN SAYS CHINA'S POLICY MOVES APPEARED 'CLUMSY' OVER LAST 6 WEEKS, 'JARRED PEOPLE' -INTERVIEW"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - FED'S KAPLAN SAYS BOJ STIMULUS WILL CLEARLY AFFECT DOLLAR AND 'WE ARE MINDFUL OF THAT' -INTERVIEW"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - FED'S KAPLAN SAYS 'SIGNIFICANT' THAT FOMC REMOVED DESCRIPTION OF 'BALANCED' RISKS IN STATEMENT -INTERVIEW"