Archive for March, 2016

Forward Book of PBOC

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

Via Bloomberg: PBOC Discloses Currency Forward Positions Amid Intervention Bets 2016-03-31 12:33:22.671 GMT By Bloomberg News (Bloomberg) -- China’s central bank revealed its short foreign-currency positions in forwards and futures for the first time, a decision that Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said will help show the extent of the monetary authority’s support of the yuan. The ...

FX

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

Via Marc Chandler at Brown Brothers Harriman: Dollar Still Suffering From Post-Yellen Hangover The dollar remains vulnerable as markets continue to pile into foreign currencies and EM FX UK Q4 GDP growth was revised higher to 2.1% y/y from 1.9% previously S&P cut the outlook on its AA- rating on China from stable ...

Junk Bond Angst

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

Via FT: 6 hours ago by: Eric Platt in New York One of the largest junk bond offerings on record, seen as a test of the month-long rally, delivered an unexpected setback to bankers after investors shied away from the riskiest piece of the transaction. The sale of debt from computer storage maker Western ...

China Investment Bank Defaults

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

Via the FT: 7 hours ago by: Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai and Don Weinland in Hong Kong A unit of Guosen Securities, China’s eighth-largest investment bank, has defaulted on a Hong Kong-traded renminbi bond, according to a document seen by the Financial Times, marking the first debt breach by a state-owned enterprise in ...

S and P on China: Negative Outlook

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Standard & Poor’s has cut the outlook for China’s credit rating to negative from stable, saying the nation’s economic rebalancing is likely to proceed more slowly than the ratings firm had expected. The nation’s credit rating is AA- with a negative outlook, S&P said in a statement, which also affirmed ...

Early FX

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

Via Kit Juckes at SocGen: Things may move around a little before the day is done but it looks as though Q1's best G10 currency trade was to sell GBP/JPY, though widening the net you'd have done even better buying MYR, RUB or BRL. Meanwhile, the only significant currencies to have ...

Credit Stuff

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

Via Bloomberg: IG CREDIT: High Volume 10-DMA Records Continue 2016-03-31 09:54:35.823 GMT By Robert Elson (Bloomberg) -- Secondary IG trading ended with a Trace count of $18.9b vs $18.6b Tuesday, $18.7b the previous Wednesday. 10-DMA $16.6b; 10-Wednesday moving avg $19.4b, a record high for the series that began in 2005. * Yesterday’s 10-Tuesday moving avg $18.3b, highest on ...

Banking a Depressed Business

Wednesday, March 30th, 2016

Moments ago I posted this FT story about rough sledding in Q1 at investment banks. The FT also carries this story which says that competition from financial technology firms will shave employment in the banking business (in Europe and US) by 1.7 million over the next decade. Via the FT: European and ...

Tough Times for Investment Banks

Wednesday, March 30th, 2016

Via the FT: 13 hours ago by: Laura Noonan in London and Alistair Gray in New York Global investment banks suffered declines of as much as 56 per cent in their trading businesses in the first three months of the year, analysts believe, stoking fears of further lay-offs for staff and lower dividends ...

Century Bond

Wednesday, March 30th, 2016

Anyone buying this bond should submit their urine for analysis. Via the Irish Times: The State has issued debt with a 100-year maturity for the first time, raising €100 million in a bond which will be repaid in 2116. The sale by the National Treasury Management Agency comes in a week in which ...