Another Placeholder Day Ahead of CPI

A strong bond auction in Germany set the stage for US bond yields to start the day slightly lower, but sellers have been pushing yields higher steadily in the AM hours.  3.52% had been a frequently hit ceiling between yesterday and this morning.  It's now giving way as we enter the PM hours, but we have to ask ourselves if anyone really cares about a technical level that's right in the middle of a very well traveled trading range.  (We'd have to answer: probably not).

When it comes to caring about something, all eyes remain on tomorrow's CPI data as the week's only top shelf market mover.  It's potential is only limited by the extent to which is beats/misses versus forecasts.  That said, even an extreme result would not likely be enough to completely drive the narrative toward sharply higher or lower rates in a sustained way.  For that, we'd need a consensus across multiple economic reports for more than a single month--something that has proven rather elusive so far in 2023.