MBS RECAP: Uneventful Afternoon After Morning Volatility

Bond markets were slightly weaker overnight as Geopolitical risk surround Ukraine continued to unwind.  There wasn't much by way of new developments there, and level of movement (i.e. "not much") suggest the same. 

Domestic economic data kept the bad times rolling in the morning.  This was exclusively a factor of Jobless Claims data, though we suspect that corporate rate-lock sellers could have used it as cover to get where they were going (Long story short: it's a huge week for corporate bonds and in the course of bringing their deals to market, billions in Treasuries can be sold to effectively "lock in" borrowing costs, the same way MBS are sold to lock in a cost of funding.  These sales will be reversed when the investors ultimately buy the bonds, but it causes volatility at the very least).

As such, Treasuries got the short end of the stick today.  MBS were much stronger by comparison, but both leveled off and/or improved from 10am through the close.  Overall, the move was moderate for Treasuries and fairly non-existent by the end of the day for MBS--consistent with a return to the super-long-term, super neutral 2.70-2.75 zone in 10yr yields.