Today's key event will be the fielding of questions by Fed Chair Powell at the semi-annual congressional testimony.  Sometimes known as the Humphrey Hawkins speech (because it used to be required by the Humphrey Hawkins Act), the sitting Fed Chair reports to Congress twice a year in Feb and July (3 times if you count November's annual economic outlook testimony--not related to Humphrey Hawkins).  Today is that day for Powell--at least when it comes to the House.  He'll be at the Senate on Thursday, but any major revelations are typically uncovered in the first round.

Markets largely expect Powell to be a carbon copy of Yellen.  His prepared remarks for today's testimony are already out and they don't suggest any change to that assessment.  Still, markets will always be on guard for any unscripted revelations about how his thinking might differ from his predecessor's.  He'll read the prepared remarks we already have at 10am ET and then field questions from members of the House Financial Services Committee.  These will largely be laughable, infuriating, depressing, and downright unnecessary examples of political grandstanding on both sides of the aisle, but a shred of relevant information here and there could come to the surface.

As for bond markets, yesterday was fairly flat after the late-day sell-off.  So far this morning, we're fairly flat again.  It's worth noting that "fairly flat" is technically a victory when all you've been doing is moving higher in rate.  The past few days of stability have continued positioning technical indicators within striking distance of more meaningful positive breakouts.  It's not time to get one's hopes up just yet, but if this persists for a few more days (especially on March 1st and 2nd), it will be.

2018-2-27 open