Archive for January, 2008
Monday, January 7th, 2008
The fixed income markets have been quiet and choppy today but I guess the theme is an unwinding of some of the outsized moves of last week. So the stock market has recouped some of its losses and the yield curve is flattening. Consequently,the 2year/10year spread had flattened by about 4basis ...
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Monday, January 7th, 2008
I just noted that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is speaking in Washington D.C. on Thursday. The topic is very germane and pertinent as he will discuss financial markets,the economic outlook and monetary policy. Get long some volatility and strap yourself in. That will be a fun ride.
JJJ
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Big Ben
Monday, January 7th, 2008
That was a great song from the mid 60s for sure. This Monday seems to be opening in a rather mundane way and without the distrust that the California based folk rock group noted in their lyrics. Markets are experiencing minor retracements of the mammoth moves of last week. Benchmark ...
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Sunday, January 6th, 2008
As the new week begins market participants are confronted anew by signs that (finally) the weakness long evident in the housing sector has leaked into other sectors of the economy. The ISM number as well as the less than festive labor report were the catalyst for a significant rally in the Treasury ...
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Friday, January 4th, 2008
Prices of Treasury coupon securities surged today following the release of an unexpectedly weak set of labor data which led many prognosticators to the view that the risk of a recession is now significant. The data demonstrated that the economy created only18K new jobs in December and the unemployment rate ...
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Friday, January 4th, 2008
There have been significant movements in the market today as participants respond to the little nuggets of gold contained in the labor data. The yield curve continues to steepen and the 2year/10year Treasury curve sits at a cycle high of about 112basis points. The absolute yield on the two year ...
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Friday, January 4th, 2008
The release of the labor data paints a picture of an economy in distress and both the equity market and the fixed income markets have reacted accordingly. The unemployment rate is the component which resonates with regular folk and that jumped to 5.0% as the labor force increased marginally and ...
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Friday, January 4th, 2008
Yields on benchmark Treasury securites increased by about 2basis points in quiet overseas trading. Traders are waiting for the data laden labor report at 8:30AM ET.
There is a Greg Ip article in the Wall Street Journal which details the concerns of the Federal Resrve about inflation. It makes the point ...
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Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
The ISM data prompted the sharp sell off in equities and the rally in bonds yesterday. Economist Ian Morris at HSBC (with whose permission I share this information) has some interesting commentary on the data. He describes the number as a 'show stopper" not only because it dropped below the ...
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Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
As I wrote earlier the market is in retreat from the pricy levels attained overnight. There are a couple of reasons for the sell-off.
The numbers were not as weak as feared and some traders are now inclined to wait for tomorrow's report.
Some of the trade yesterday was triggered by the ...
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