Archive for March, 2014

Mark Chandler on the ECB and the Euro

Monday, March 31st, 2014

Via Mark Chandler of Brown Brothers: n contrast, the ECB is under pressure to provide additional accommodation.  This is understandable given weak money supply growth, a continued contraction in lending, an elevated EONIA (more than twice the effective Fed funds rate), and an economic recovery that remains (as Draghi says) weak, ...

Personal Income and Spending Data Meet ObamaCare Revisited Via Nate Silver Blog

Monday, March 31st, 2014

On Friday I posted a long screed attacking ObamaCare and then appended to that post work from economists at FTN Financial which posited that the Affordable Care Act is diverting spending from department stores to health insurance spending. The 538 Blog ( the new expanded Nate Silver blog in his ...

March 31 2014 Opening

Monday, March 31st, 2014

Prices of Treasury coupon securities are taking a battering in overnight trading. The extent of the sell off is troubling as the economic backdrop is sanguine for fixed income. In Japan Industrial Production in February posted a sharp 2.3 percent decline. The paid pundits and prognosticators who for profit predict ...

Bundesbank’s Weidman Says Europe Not in Deflationary Spiral

Sunday, March 30th, 2014

Via Reuters: ECB's Weidmann says euro zone not in deflationary cycle By Patrick Graham BERLIN Sat Mar 29, 2014 8:49am EDT (Reuters) - The euro zone is not in a deflationary cycle and the European Central Bank (ECB) should not overreact to a slowdown in inflation caused largely by cyclical factors which should prove ...

Bad Loan Writedowns Soar at Large Banks in China

Sunday, March 30th, 2014

Via FT:   Bad loan writedowns soar at China banks By Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai China’s biggest banks more than doubled the level of bad loans they wrote off last year, in a sign that financial strains are mounting as growth in the world’s second-largest economy slows. The five biggest Chinese banks, which account for ...

Mega Wealth

Saturday, March 29th, 2014

I just found this site called House of Debt and the lead post at that site on income and wealth inequality is rather provocative. It seems that it is not the top 1 percent who have accrued all the gains in wealth but the top 0.1 percent, the 99.9 percentile. ...

MBS

Friday, March 28th, 2014

If you are keeping score of mortgages at home and I know you are then you will be glad to know that both 30 year and 15 year paper is 1 to 1+ tighter to Treasuries. Client flow in this market is minimal,too.

Corporate Bond Issuance This Week

Friday, March 28th, 2014

Via Bloomberg: IG CREDIT: Weekly Volume Falls for Third Consecutive Week 2014-03-28 14:53:22.216 GMT By Lisa Loray March 28 (Bloomberg) -- Issuance fell for a third consecutive week, with 13 issuers pricing $17.425b in 20 tranches for the week ending March 28 * Issuance fell 9.5% from the week prior when $19.25b priced from 14 issuers in 21 ...

Treasury Market Update

Friday, March 28th, 2014

The Treasury market sell off is picking up steam. Volumes are rather light and this appears to me to be a street led sell off. One dealer made the point that supply is over and that supply was a liquidity event for those who needed bonds. Now there is no ...

Personal Income and Consumption Data Meet ObamaCare

Friday, March 28th, 2014

I have to preface this little post with the remark that I am unabashedly opposed to most of President Obama's progressive makeover of America  ( a fundamental transformation to coin a phrase) and I have expressed that point of view several times here on the blog. I am particularly opposed ...