With Friday being a half day ahead of a 3 day weekend, today is essentially the end of the trading year.  In fact, one could argue that December 15th or 16th was the end of the year in terms of full-fledged trader participation, but we still expect to see some effects from month-end positioning today.  It might be good.  It might be bad.  But it won't matter in the bigger picture, nor will it have any bearing on how the trends unfold in the new year.

Today has two modestly relevant events: the 7yr Treasury auction at 1pm and the 3pm CME close at--well...  3pm.  Neither matter in the bigger picture, but could cause intraday volatility.

Bonds are off to a solid start in the first half of the day with 10yr yields finally pushing back against the frustrating little selling spree of the past two weeks.