It was a tremendously calm day for bond markets.  In fact, 10yr yields held a range of 1.73 to 1.768--the narrowest of the entire year.  Still, the modest amount of movement managed to be positive, even though that didn't look like a guarantee early in the session. 

Coming off the overnight hours, bond markets were weakening in concert with rising equities and oil prices.  The morning's economic data actually had an impact though.  Chicago PMI was much weaker than expected (47.6 vs 53.0) and helped bonds bounce out of the negative territory they'd been slipping into.  A weaker reading on Pending Home Sales only reinforced the move.

European equities markets surged (higher) into the close and made an anemic attempt to pull bond yields higher, but we bounced just before touching negative territory.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Both MBS and Treasuries tread quickly sideways to slightly stronger into the close.  A 2pm swoon in equities provided the only other detectable motivation for the day, but we should also consider the 3pm CME pit close as a focal point of month-end trading activity.  If anything, this added to the equities-inspired rally.


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
102-18 : +0-06
Treasuries
10 YR
1.7380 : -0.0260
Pricing as of 2/29/16 5:40PMEST

Today's Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
9:58AM  :  Paradoxical Reaction to EU Inflation Data; Chicago PMI Helping

MBS Live Chat Highlights
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
Matthew Graham  :  "As always, bond market gains are all the more satisfying when they arrive against the backdrop of increased corporate issuance (reason being: How Does Corporate Debt Issuance Affect Mortgage Rates?)"
Matthew Graham  :  "robust day for corporate bond origination as well. One $12bln deal just from Exxon"
Timothy Baron  :  "Heavy origination day I presume."
Clayton Sandy  :  "Chip, I think he just needs to disclose that on the appraisal. You always see that message stating they haven't done an appraisal before on it, but not sure about prohibiting them from doing it."
Chip Harris  :  "Is there something in AIR / HVCC that doesn't allow the same appraiser to do a report within the last three years? Same guy did the purchase, showed up and now told the borrower he thinks that they need to send a new appraiser? Never heard of that. I have a message in to the AMC."
Gavin Luckman  :  "Curt, that just blew my mind"
Curt Sandfort  :  "VA appraiser made this report "subject to installation of gutters and downspouts" and is now saying that he won't do a 1004d because a reinspection is not necessary."