Highest Rates This Week, But Close Enough to Long Term Lows

Weaker Conclusion But No Major Big Picture Implications Despite much stronger revisions and a modestly stronger core retail sales number this morning, bonds managed to hold mostly sideways until the afternoon hours.  At that point, lighter summertime Friday afternoon trading gave way to a mini snowball that took yields to their highest levels of the week.  Fed Funds futures suggested some thought behind the selling with the highest implied September rate since just before Tuesday's CPI. All that having been said, bonds could simply be hedging their optimism ahead of next week's Jackson Hole speech from Fed Chair Powell. In the bigger picture, l