Research fellowships tend to notify early, too. My understanding is that many of them have started notifying early because, in the past, they have lost their top choices due to other programs snatching them up before UND.
UND is a lot different from Match Day. Generally it seems like you get notified of an acceptance earlier than a rejection, so programs contact their first choices and then go down the list as they get rejections. In this case, no news is bad news.