MBS Live Recap: Bonds Still On The Ropes

Today was the calmest of the past 3 days of craziness, although the higher-than-average volume suggests things are still happening behind the scenes.  Specifically, that volume can be largely attributed to traders cashing in previous bets on higher rates.  This is accomplished by buying bonds (to close out a bond transaction that was previously "sold short").  In other words, there was less selling and/or more buying today compared to other days because many of the sellers were cleaning up their positions.

The net effect wasn't very beneficial as yields still managed to end the day at new cycle highs (3.115%).  MBS did slightly better and managed to end the day unchanged.  

Economic data looked like it might have been interesting at first with Philly Fed coming in much higher than expected.  But a few minutes after the data, an improvement in bond yields suggested the aforementioned short-covering was doing more to motivate trade.