MBS Live Morning: More Data, But Not Necessarily More Excitement

Like Monday, bonds traded flat to slightly stronger in Asia, were closed in London, popped a bit higher in early domestic trading, and are now dropping into positive territory. Volume, liquidity, rhyme, and reason are all lacking, but we don't need any of that considering our current spot in the bigger picture trading range.  Today brings a few more data points, both in terms of econ reports and the 5yr Treasury auction at 1pm (the day's biggest potential market mover).

Even then, there's a high bar for any of this week's market movement to inform the bigger picture.  This is due both to the slower trading typically seen in the last week of December as well as the waiting game surrounding the omicron variant (i.e. case counts are clearly surging in some places, but it remains to be seen if case counts will translate to hospitalizations/deaths in the same way as previous waves).

For those who care to pay any attention to this week's ups and downs, the most basic game plan would be to watch pivot points in your preferred security.  In terms of 10yr yields, 1.54 and 1.35 are solid choices for book-ends.  Anything between those levels is ho-hum.