Archive for February, 2008
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Chairman Bernanke in the text of his testimony made quite transparent the Fed's concerns about the economy. The opening sentence sets the tone as the Chairman notes that “the economic situation has become distinctly less favorable since the time of our July report”. He then proceeds to document the case ...
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Mortgages are ratcheting tighter as OFHEO has removed the growth caps on the portfolios of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Traders suspect that each of the agencies can traipse through the market place merrily waving in batches of MBS. Mortgages were 5 basis points or so wider early this morning ...
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Durable Goods orders dropped 5.3 percent in January (consensus -4.0) following a revision to 4.4 percent in the prior month. This series is particularly volatile and the drop not altogether unexpected after the big rise in previous month. Shipments held up pretty well with non defense capital goods ex aircraft up ...
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
As I noted earlier, former Goldman Sachs CEO and current Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson will auction $26billion of 2year notes at 100PM ET. The WI issue trades at about 1.95 percent and as I write at about 800 AM ET that implies a 1.875 percent coupon. If it remains at ...
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
It was an active overseas session.
Asian buyers of 2 year notes.
End user and swap desk buying of 10year notes.
Banks and hot money selling 5 years.
Asian buyers of 5years.
Central banks buying across the curve.
Middle Eastern bill buyers.
Buyers of US versus Europe
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Prices of Treasury coupon securities pushed higher in overnight trading powered by expectations that Mr Bernanke will “deliver the goods” for the bond bulls when he testifies before a Congressonal hearing later this morning. Additionally , as month end is nigh and the inclusion of the new long bond in ...
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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
New York Times story on the travails of small banks and a soporific compilation from the FDIC.
UK mortgage giant HBOS misses estimates.
From the blog Economist's View a link to a Dallas Fed study of the Greenspan conundrum.
It is a very academic but very interesting discussion of the divergence between long ...
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Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Prices of Treasury coupon securities surged today as economic data and a speech by the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve contributed to a significant steepening of the yield curve. The yield on the 2 year note plunged 13 basis points and is once again on the south side of ...
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Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
This is a sad story but you have to say to ask what the hell these people could be thinking!
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Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Corporate bond spreads tightened by 3 basis points to 4 basis spoints today. The tone of the market improved and one grizzled veteran with whom I regularly converse noted that the secondary market was more active today. He observed that lately it is usually the hot run mega sized benchmark ...
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