Daily Market Notes
The ISM Headline Fell Half a Point. The Number the Bond Market Traded Is Not In It.
The ISM services index printed 54.9 against August's 55.4, and the four sub-indices it is the straight average of moved −5.2, −1.1, +2.3 and +1.9 — business activity fell 10.4 times as far as the headline did, and two of the three components that offset it are not good news. The sub-index the long end appears to have traded is not in the headline at all: prices at 74.0, up 1.4, and new export orders down 9.4 into contraction at 46.9. The ten-year closed at a 52-week high, marked 5.315 at one publisher and 5.307 at another, while the two-year fell 0.2 of a basis point — about 4.6 basis points of steepening and no change in Fed pricing.