Archive for January, 2008
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
The Commerce Department report of retail sales presents a bleak picture of the present state of consumer spending. Sales dropped by 0.4% (consensus flat) and ex-autos fell 0.4percent also(consensus -0.1percent). There were small downward adjustments to the previous month.
Nearly every category in the report manifested weakness. The only pockets of ...
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Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
Prices of Treasury coupon securities have pushed higher in overnight trading buttressed by the anticipation of sanguine economic news at 830AM ET (see previous post for details). In the early morning hours the first of the financial powerhouses reported its earnings and Citibank's earnings were anything but sanguine and were indeed ...
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
Tuesday brings the beginning of the heavy slate of data which confronts and probably perplexes market participants this week.
I think the most significant is the Retail Sales report. The Bloomberg consensus looks for the number to be flat. In the prior period this number jumped 1.2percent.Ex-autos the consensus is for -0.1percent. Last ...
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
Prices of Treasury coupon securities meandered about in a very narrow range today and are closing with very small losses in the 2year through 10year sector while the 30year bond has posted a small gain of about 3/32. The 2year/10year spread is finishing unchanged at about122 basis points but has ...
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
After surrendering some of last week's outsized gains in overnight trading the market continues to grind higher and while there are losses across the curve they are of the marginal variety. Conversations with participants informs me that it is a quiet day. There had been some speculation that the Fed ...
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
Marketwatch reports that IBM has released a statement that 4th quarter earnings will significantly beat market expectations. That has ignited the market as well as IBM stock .
JJJ
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
Prices of Treasury coupon securities have pushed marginally higher in overnight trading and the yield curve has reached a new wide for this cycle. Following Chairman Bernanke's speech last week the expectation is that the FOMC will open wide the monetary spigot and that has led to a pronounced steepening of ...
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Sunday, January 13th, 2008
I wrote the previous entry entitled Economic Preview on Sunday evening ( after the New York football Giants victory over America's team) and it is intended for consumption on Monday January 14 ,2008.
JJJ
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Sunday, January 13th, 2008
There are no meaningful economic releases today. The only noteworthy economic event is another Term Auction Facility offering by the Federal Reserve System. The Fed is offering $30billion of credit for 28 days,an increase of $10billion from the prior offering.
Today is the anomalous data-free day in a week replete with ...
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Friday, January 11th, 2008
Prices of Treasury coupon securities surged again and the march to a steeper yield curve continued with vigor. The 2year note has hit a low yield for the cycle and now rests at 2.59percent. The 2year/10year spread has touched 122basis points and the 2year/30year spread is 180 basis points.
The bond ...
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