The jobs report came out mixed with payrolls falling 10k short of the 60k forecast and the unemployment rate ticking down to 4.4% vs a 4.5% forecast. The unemployment rate decline is mitigated somewhat by the decline in labor force participation. All in all, this is not a lopsided report with any chance of sparking a rapid move in bonds. That said, MBS are moving rapidly higher and it has nothing to do with data and everything to do with last night's announcement of the administration's plans to buy $200bln in MBS. Simply put, Treasuries are roughly unchanged while MBS are up half a point.
The chart below shows the dichotomy. Note that MBS prices have been inverted to show correlation with TSY yields (i.e. lower blue line = stronger MBS):
Wild Ride For MBS as Traders Digest New Developments
Wild Ride For MBS as Traders Digest New Developments
We may have been looking to the jobs report as this week’s biggest potential source of volatility, but that changed on Thursday afternoon after Trump’s $200b…