March 23rd Mortgage Market Wrap-up

Mortgage backed securities (MBS) closed down 6 basis points today at 98.78 still floating above the 50 day moving average some 35 bps below.  Supply and demand played their roles out across the globe today.  The damage in Japan has been estimated at $300 billion which caused additional concern that they may sell off some of their MBS holdings.  At the same time the Fed bought $7.5 billion in Treasuries today.  Unfortuantely traders had ove $30 billion to sell.