Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Treasury prices are mostly unchanged despite overnight news that the World Bank cut its global growth forecast to 2.5% from last year's estimate of 3.6%.  The move associates the risk of an EU recession with an overall slowdown in developing markets. 

Meanwhile, today's US economic calendar is quite active with data on US housing, industrial production and prices.  The early morning release of the MBA mortgage applications index showed a surprise surge of 23.1% vs last week's increase of 4.5%.  Refinances spiked 26%, while purchased posted a less impressive increase of 10%. 

The December PPI report was mixed as the headline PPI unexpectedly fell -0.1% but core prices rose a greater than expected 0.3%. Currently, the 10 year yield is at 1.857% (1.884% Tuesday) and the 2-10 yield spread is at 163bps, unchanged since yesterday morning.     

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