To be fair to Fed Chair Yellen, it was too much to ask of her to concoct some secret combination of words that would magically help stem the tide of recent panic.  Still, markets had leveled-off in the sort of sideways approach pattern often seen in advance of 'big news.'  But to reiterate, there really wasn't any news.  Yellen didn't say anything too surprising.  In fact, she didn't have a chance to say much at all, considering these House FSOC testimonies do more to provide a stage to political grandstanding than to an honest discussion about the economy and monetary policy.  

The early tenor of the day was dictated by Europe.  Considering that European bank stocks were part of the reason for movement earlier in the week, a big bounce in Europe helped stock futures overnight and put nominal pressure on Treasuries.  Domestic traders put their foot down when they got in the door and then really went to town after Europe was out for the day.  I would normally be more inclined to chalk up some of the afternoon strength to a 10yr auction (considering it happened at the same time that Europe closed), but watching the rally in real time, it was clear that bond markets weren't going crazy right at 1pm.  The fact that stocks turned the corner at the same time suggests bigger forces were at work.

2016-2-10 Europe

Bond markets ended the day at the best levels in more than a year.  


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
104-30 : +0-04
Treasuries
10 YR
1.6730 : -0.0560
Pricing as of 2/10/16 5:16PMEST

Today's Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
10:42AM  :  Bond Markets Slightly Defensive As Yellen Begins Testimony

MBS Live Chat Highlights
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
Matthew Graham  :  "“I am not aware of anything that would prevent us from doing it. But I am saying we have not fully investigated the legal issues. That still needs to be done,” Yellen said."
Ray J  :  "lol. are negative rates legal?"
Brandon Blue  :  "This market is nuts"
Christopher Stevens  :  "Had lunch with one of my correspondent investors today and a reprice better came out. I said the market hasn't improved that much. The response was "we haven't received enough locks this morning so we improved pricing, its not always about the market.""
Matthew Graham  :  "better than 50/50, just depends how long you want to wait."
Gilbert Denizard  :  "so Matt, what are the odds of a 1.50 10 yr? 50/50? 30/70?"
Matthew Graham  :  "It has been running in the 6-9 tick range (roughly 0.25) for most of the past 3 years."
Matthew Graham  :  "no, but it always doesn't matter how many ticks it is."
Mark DeWitt  :  "MG is the roll always a specific number of ticks?"
Matthew Graham  :  "B+"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - HIGH YIELD AT LATEST 10-YEAR NOTE SALE WAS MORE THAN 1 BASIS POINT BELOW ITS 1 P.M. WHEN-ISSUED LEVEL - REUTERS DATA"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - U.S. 10-YEAR NOTES BID-TO-COVER RATIO 2.56, NON-COMP BIDS $24.37 MLN"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - U.S. SELLS $23 BLN 10-YEAR NOTES AT HIGH YIELD 1.730 PCT, AWARDS 4.46 PCT OF BIDS AT HIGH"