MBS MID-DAY: Bond Markets Claw Back to Unchanged Territory After Data

By: Matthew Graham

The overnight session was nominally weaker for Treasuries, but there was limited activity overall as Japan (the key participant in US Treasuries during the first half of the overnight session) was out on holiday.  The weakness extended just slightly as domestic traders got into full swing (officially, after the 8:20am CME pit open), but it was short-lived.

10yr yields held a supportive ceiling just over 2.73 and haven't been back since.  A return trip was certainly at risk heading into the morning's key data release--Consumer Confidence--but that risk faded when the data came out weaker than expected.  Perhaps the most important aspect of the data was that the labor differential was a bit weaker, and traders look to that component as one of the leading indicators for Friday's Nonfarm Payrolls data.

A cautious move back to unchanged levels ensued, and that's about all there is to say about that!  Treasuries are lower in yield since 8am despite stocks being at the same or better levels.  MBS have taken measured steps back toward 'unchanged' and are currently just 1/32nd away.


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
97-01 : -0-02
FNMA 3.5
101-04 : -0-01
FNMA 4.0
104-12 : -0-01
Treasuries
2 YR
0.4418 : +0.0118
10 YR
2.7041 : +0.0271
30 YR
3.5009 : +0.0399
Pricing as of 4/29/14 12:16PMEST

Morning Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
10:17AM  :  Bond Markets Improve Following Weaker Consumer Confidence Data
9:31AM  :  Looking For Support After Opening Weaker

Live Chat Featured Comments
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
Victor Burek  :  "I'd recommend locking as much more to risk then to gain"
Sung Kim  :  "i would agree with vic, this is a scary week and even if data comes in worse than expected we will just move to the bottom of the range"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS- US SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE WILL HOLD OFF ON FULL PANEL CONSIDERATION OF BILL TO WIND DOWN FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC, SENATE AIDE SAYS"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS- SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE LEADERS TO HOLD OFF ON BILL CONSIDERATION FOLLOWING OPENING STATEMENTS DUE TO NEED FOR MORE SUPPORT, AIDE SAYS"
Gus Floropoulos  :  "MBS holding it down this morning"
Gus Floropoulos  :  "considering TSY movement, pretty impressive"
Sung Kim  :  "Major outperformance - wonder how much supply vs fed buying has to do with this"
Ira Selwin  :  "Could have sworn I read this somewhere: "On a final note, it wouldn't be fair to MBS today to simply look at a chart of Treasuries considering the noticeable outperformance in the past several sessions""
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS- US APRIL CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDEX 82.3 (CONSENSUS 83.0) VS MARCH REVISED 83.9 (PREVIOUS 82.3) - CONFERENCE BOARD"
Matthew Graham  :  "RTRS - U.S. SEASONALLY ADJUSTED HOMEOWNERSHIP RATE SLIPS TO 65.0 PERCENT IN FIRST QUARTER FROM 65.1 PERCENT IN FOURTH QUARTER - U.S. COMMERCE DEPARTMENT"