The Day Ahead: Last Call For EU to Shake Things up Before Tomorrow's Jobs Report

By: Matthew Graham

A few friends have mentioned that it's baseball season currently, making the recent metaphorical usage of "lead-off's" in bond markets all the more germane.  So in the spirit of the season, let's continue with lead-off's.  It all begins with Rod Carew (obviously).  Carew had said ''the walking lead was essential.  The walking lead got your momentum started.''  If we didn't know that quote was in the 1989 New York Times, he might as well have been talking about bond markets over the past 4 sessions.

 The metaphorical pitcher may have checked in on Tuesday, sending us back to base in the afternoon (1.68%), but since yesterday's ADP numbers, we've walked steadily closer to the point of no return.  The trajectory between this base and the next is made clear by the prevailing trends from mid-March.  In the following chart, note that if Treasuries don't go below the teal line, they're technically NOT reentering the previous downtrend.  This could just be coincidence, but it could be Treasuries' way of being as aggressive as possible in their lead-off, without overdoing it.  

But where do we go from here?  Any more of a lead-off and we're committed to taking the next base, or trying at least.  If the last three days of this week equate to "3 outs," then we're only one down, two to go heading into Thursday morning.  The ECB Announcement is the focal point and could easily prompt another return to base (update: the statement itself didn't do the trick, so now waiting on press conference at 8:30am).  Conversely, it could be an encouraging enough wind-up to keep our walking lead going, but only so far.  While stranger things have happened, bullish eventualities are probably limited to riding the teal line in the chart above, holding out for Friday's NFP if we're to make it all the way to the next base around 1.55%.  Would that be home?

Likely technical targets for a bull run are a milder 1.609 and a more serious 1.587--from an old-fashioned horizontal standpoint anyway.  Even when considering diagonal trends, such as the longer term uptrend in rates from last summer, the lower 2-standard deviation regression line from last July's lows coincides with either 1.587 or 1.609 level today, depending on whether you chart it as a continuation from 1/1/13 or all the way through yesterday (really).  1.55 is doable, but 1.46 is a base that's unlikely to be stolen without full cooperation from Friday's NFP.  Of course there are bearish possibilities as well.  They're not as fun to talk about, but just as real, and would start with a return to 1.68.  From there, 1.70 and 1.733 feel like sturdy enough ceilings to hold until seeing Friday's data.

Obligatory MBS Chart!

MBS Live Econ Calendar:

Week Of Mon, Apr 29 2013 - Fri, May 3 2013

Time

Event

Period

Unit

Forecast

Prior

Mon, Apr 29

08:30

Personal income mm

Mar

%

0.3

1.1

08:30

Consumption, adjusted mm

Mar

%

0.1

0.7

10:00

Pending sales change mm

Mar

%

1.0

-0.4

Tue, Apr 30

08:30

Employment costs

Q1

%

0.5

0.5

09:00

Case Shiller Home Prices

Feb

%

0.2

0.1

09:45

Chicago PMI

Apr

--

52.0

52.4

10:00

Consumer confidence

Apr

--

60.0

59.7

Wed, May 1

07:00

Mortgage market index

w/e

--

--

868.1

08:15

ADP National Employment

Apr

k

150

158

10:00

ISM Manufacturing PMI

Apr

--

50.9

51.3

10:00

Construction spending

Mar

%

0.8

1.2

14:00

FOMC Announcement

N/A

%

--

--

Thu, May 2

07:30

Challenger layoffs

Apr

k

--

49.255

08:30

International trade mm $

Mar

bl

-42.5

-43.0

08:30

Productivity Revised

Q1

%

1.9

-1.9

08:30

Labor costs Revised

Q1

%

0.4

4.6

08:30

Initial Jobless Claims

w/e

k

346

339

Fri, May 3

08:30

Non-farm payrolls

Apr

k

150

88

08:30

Average workweek hrs

Apr

hr

34.6

34.6

08:30

Average earnings mm

Apr

%

0.2

0.0

08:30

Unemployment rate mm

Apr

%

7.6

7.6

08:30

Private Payrolls

Apr

k

168

95

10:00

Factory orders mm

Mar

%

-2.5

3.0

10:00

ISM N-Mfg Bus Act

Apr

--

56.0

56.5

10:00

ISM N-Mfg PMI

Apr

--

54.0

54.4

* mm: monthly | yy: annual | qq: quarterly | "w/e" in "period" column indicates a weekly report

* Q1: First Quarter | Adv: Advance Release | Pre: Preliminary Release | Fin: Final Release

* (n)SA: (non) Seasonally Adjusted

* PMI: "Purchasing Managers Index"