MBS MID-DAY: Moderately Weaker, MBS Underperform After Senate Headlines

By: Matthew Graham •

The day began with bond markets moving relentlessly sideways, and against the backdrop of Friday's post-NFP move, they still are.  In other words, MBS and Treasury levels continue to operate well within Friday's range despite some near-term weakness this morning.

Treasuries are handling that weakness with more aplomb, having never broken yesterday's high yields and currently right in the middle of the 2-day range.  MBS, on the other hand, fell to their weakest levels of the week after headlines indicated a Senate deal in the works that would reform Fannie and Freddie.

At issue is the fact that any change in the securitization landscape creates uncertainty for MBS valuations.  Uncertainty hurts MBS relative to other fixed-income investments whose futures aren't so cloudy. 

While that underperformance persists, the overall trajectory of bond markets has improved following some selling pressure that took MBS into negative territory during the 10am hour.  Treasuries are back into positive territory while MBS remain about an eighth of a point weaker. Thy had been down another 3/32nds at their weakest levels.

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
96-08 : -0-05
FNMA 3.5
100-20 : -0-04
FNMA 4.0
104-06 : -0-04
Treasuries
2 YR
0.3777 : +0.0047
10 YR
2.7807 : -0.0033
30 YR
3.7206 : -0.0084
Pricing as of 3/11/14 12:07PMEST
Morning Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
10:21AM  :  ALERT ISSUED: MBS Fall Quickly to Lows After Senate GSE Deal Announcement
9:14AM  :  Bond Markets Sharply Sideways Overnight, Little-Changed This AM
Live Chat Featured Comments
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
John Rodgers  :  "Is it me or is home owners insurance accerlerating higher? "
Hugh W. Page  :  "Don't even get me started in Florida on the insurance . . ."
Christopher Stevens  :  "Art Cashin thinks we might start seeing a flight to safety by end of week in the 10YR with recent developments in Ukraine. "
Victor Burek  :  "it definitely isn't getting any better over there"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - U.S. SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN JOHNSON AND RANKING REPUBLICAN CRAPO ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE ON HOUSING FINANCE REFORM"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - DEAL WOULD REQUIRE 10 PERCENT PRIVATE CAPITAL UP FRONT FOR THE SYSTEM TO PROTECT TAXPAYERS"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - JOHNSON AND CRAPO SAY DEAL WOULD LIQUIDATE FANNIE AND FREDDIE AND BUILD A NEW FRAMEWORK THAT PROVIDES GOVERNMENT BACKSTOP DURING A CRISIS"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - DEAL WOULD REQUIRE A 5 PERCENT DOWN PAYMENT FOR MORTGAGES, EXCEPT FOR FIRST-TIME BUYERS, PHASED IN OVER TIME"
Ted Rood  :  "So first timers put down less than 5%? Thought we'd kinda sorta done that with disastrous results already??"
Scott Valins  :  "mbs don't like it"
David Rudnick  :  ".... I don't really understand what just happened here. "
Matthew Graham  :  "what's going on is that we're in the midst of a mild sell-off that looks crazy because you're looking at a 2-day chart. Also, the Senate news took a good chunk out of MBS performance vs Treasuries as it creates uncertainty in MBS valuation."
Jeff Anderson  :  "As MG said in the alert that came out a few minutes ago the Senate wants to create a new organization that does exactly what Fannie and Freddie does now which will cost millions in infrastructure/studies for a 2 organizations that are now making money versus tweeking them with additional safety measures. And one of the lead guys names is Crapo. I wish this was stuff we were making up."
Ted Rood  :  "Maybe we can establish a new department to oversee the wind down on Fan/Fred and fund it off books as with CFPB."
Gaius Rossini  :  "i don't see gse reform passing"