The financial world is abuzz yet again with Greek debt deal headlines.  And yet again, they are almost completely meaningless.  Before you say to yourself "but they can't be completely meaningless if the headlines are moving markets and if so many people are talking about it!" hear me out.  As I've said time and again (as recently as yesterday), headlines and economic releases provide cover for markets to move where they're going to move.  This morning's Greece-related headlines were a great way to explain rampant overnight weakness in European bonds, but there's one small problem: there was no corresponding movement in Greek debt yields!

(show this chart to the next person that tells you Greece is a big market mover these days)

Don't believe everything you read.  These charts don't lie.  2011-2012 show us what a real crisis looks like for Greece.  The rightmost trading activity shows us the relative reaction to all the recent Greek news (the purple line).  Meanwhile, the red and yellow lines show us that core bond markets are selling off for other reasons.  Media and even market participants will continue to pay attention to Greece.  Many may even continue to believe it's an important part of the long term outlook.  But at best, it's an occasional, minor contributor to short term movement.  It has nearly nothing to do with the 2-month spike in bond yields.

Speaking of the 2-month spike in bond yields, we're in weaker territory again today, but we've recovered a decent chunk of overnight losses.  The 10yr Auction just came in a bit stronger than expected, bringing 10's back down to 2.458 and Fannie 3.5s near the highs of the day at 102-13.  That's only 2 ticks weaker from yesterday's close (post-roll prices).