MBS RECAP: Bond Markets Utterly Rocked by THIS Central Banker (Not The One You Think)

It was Draghi! Not Yellen!

You know me (maybe?).  I hate those cheesy headlines with the "THIS" that alludes to what the headline should have just told you in the first place.  But today was such a wonderful example of misdirection for the average financially savvy consumer (and even many working in some financial capacity). 

Almost everyone with an opinion on the matter will chalk at least some of today's market movement up to Janet Yellen's congressional testimony.  After all, we had a big market move and the Fed chief was speaking before the Joint Economic Committee in a way that basically confirmed the December rate hike.  It had to be Yellen, right?

Without exaggeration or the least bit of uncertainty, I can tell you that Yellen was an utter and complete non-event today.  She had absolutely nothing to do with the conflagration on trade screens.  It was all Draghi, all the time, early, often, over the river (which is red), and through the woods (also red), with a cherry on top (the cherry was more of a vermilion, but due to rounding, it's technically also red).

What did Draghi do?  I'm saving the answer for tomorrow morning's Day Ahead to give us something to pass the time ahead of NFP.  If you can't wait, the short answer is that Draghi took away the punch bowl in totally unexpected way, and in an intraday environment that allowed us to observe the ECB news in relative isolation.  Believe me, I know how weird "isolation" sounds on this busy week and with Yellen speaking on the same day, but it happened, and there's plenty of hard evidence that will be in tomorrow morning's notes. 

Between now and then, there's also the new Housing Newsletter.  I know the guy that writes this. Bit wordy, but it covers the important bases.