The recent rate drama continues unabated.  Today was the 6th day of heavy selling in bond markets, bringing yields within striking distance of the 2014 highs near 3.041%.  As has been the case during this sell-off, there really hasn't been much to hang one's hat on with respect to convenient explanations.  It's not as if there was some big revelation from a major central bank or some hugely positive piece of economic data.

Rather, I continue to see this as a simple resumption of the previous bigger-picture trend toward higher rates, with the same old broad headwinds accepting blame (Fed outlook, Treasury issuance outlook, growth/inflation risks).  This past week was compounded not only by a technical break of March's corrective trend, but also by distorted tradeflows associated with the tax deadline (retirement account funding making its way to managed funds that include bonds).

Essentially all of today's weakness was intact by the time the domestic session began.  There was a brief, modest attempt to rally early, then bonds slowly drifted back toward their weaker levels.  While this didn't result in any serious reprice risk, the weaker levels in the morning made for some rate sheet ugliness.  We should expect to see a token bounce within the next 3 business days, but there's no guarantee such a thing would last more than a single day at this point.  Even then, lenders aren't likely to pass much (if any) love on to rate sheets for a single day of gains.