- Today could have been better and worse.
- Bright note: 10yr yields still holding under 1.80, mortgage rates are unchanged.
- Sour note: 10's barely held 1.80 and can't seem to get solid momentum going in the other direction.
Bond markets began the day in slightly weaker territory as risk markets (stocks, oil prices) improved overnight. 10yr yields hit the domestic session roughly 2bps higher than yesterday's latest levels. From there, the opening tradeflow momentum (trades that traders were waiting to make until the CME opening bell) kicked off a brief recovery. It was helped along by very weak Housing Starts data.
Treasuries made it almost all the way back to unchanged and MBS briefly traded into positive territory before things deteriorated again. This time around, it was a solid pop in oil prices and a small deluge of corporate bond launches. That means that new supply was confirmed as hitting the bond market today. The supply competes with Treasuries and MBS (among other things) for investor attention. Investors already know these deals are coming, but they don't always know the exact time or day they will hit.
Weakness was fairly swift heading into the 11am hour and it took Treasuries to the weakest levels of the month. That said, 10yr yields maxed out at 1.806 and ultimately made it back into the 1.78's by the 3pm official close. Things are starting to look tense in terms of what might happen in the near future despite the silver lining seen in the form of today's rate sheets remaining unchanged.
MBS | FNMA 3.0 102-17 : -0-03 | ||
Treasuries | 10 YR 1.7870 : +0.0160 | ||
Pricing as of 4/19/16 4:21PMEST |