MBS MID-DAY: Europe Turns Our Green to Red Ahead of Auction

The headline is the extend of the story this morning.  We began the day in positive territory, but have been pulled into negative territory by European bond market weakness.  If you're busy, you won't be missing too much if you stop reading now. 

The overnight session was broadly positive, and mostly to do with Europe.  This brought MBS and Treasuries into the domestic session at slightly stronger levels.  A weak batch of economic data at 8:30am helped the gains extend ever-so-briefly, but those gains were quickly seized upon as an opportunity to sell--both into the European close and the domestic afternoon (Treasury auction).

While the original motivation of that move higher in yield may have been domestic, it was Europe that took the ball and ran with it (straight up in yield).  German Bunds quickly broke well into negative territory while US bond markets followed reluctantly. 

Some of the big corporate debt issuance that had been on hold yesterday is now coming to market alongside today's 10yr Treasury auction.  That makes for a supply-rich environment for bond traders--not the greatest thing for prices.  Most lenders have repriced for the worse or will be soon.