More Defensive Today, But Who To Blame?

Bonds had a generally constructive day to start the holiday-shortened week yesterday, with yields rallying in the morning and ultimately holding modest gains after some afternoon weakness.  Today looked to be off to a similarly constructive start, but the selling pressure has shown up a bit earlier.  Who's to blame? The easiest scapegoat is simply the bigger selling pressure in Europe where Bund yields are up 7bps from the lows. 

If we want to jump to conclusions, we could also consider some trepidation ahead of this afternoon's Fed Minutes, but it would still be a surprise to see any new ideas brought to light in that venue.  Blame aside, none of today's movement matters in the bigger picture as long as we remain inside the "triangle" that's been forming between the 4.32 highs and the uptrend of the past two weeks.