Archive for January, 2008

Credit Stress

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

S and P downgraded $264 billion of CDOs backed by subprime mortgages late today. That action by the ratings agency has kept the markets on the sharp edge which developed when Fitch downgraded mortgage insurer FGIC earlier in the day. S and P futures are down around 13.90 points and Dow ...

Miscellany

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

Corporate bond spreads spent the day on a roller coaster but managed to close about unchanged. They opened 3 basis to 4 basis points wider and inched tighter to about unchanged at the time of the FOMC statement. Paper began to trade on the offered side but when stocks hit ...

January 30 2008 Recap

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities,after trading in a narrow and lower range prior to the FOMC statement, reacted to that statement with a significant steepening of the yield curve following the 50 basis point reduction in the target funds rate and Discount rate. As the market heads toward a close ...

FOMC Statement

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

The FOMC stayed on the road less travelled and slashed the Federal Funds rate and the discount rate by 50 basis points. When coupled with the bold 75 basis point move last week this is the most significant Fed ease since the rate reductions of the 1980s when the funds rate was ...

Treasury Refunding Announcement

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

The Treasury announced that it will sell $13 billion 10 year notes and $9 billion 30 year bonds next week. The Treasury addressed some issues particular to the bill market. They will be issuing cash management bills in February,March and April as they always do .However, they stated that the maturities ...

GDP

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

Q4 2007 GDP came in weaker than expected at o.6 percent (consensus 1.2 percent). This was substantially weaker than the sharp gain of 4.9 percent in Q3. Inventories subtracted nearly 1.3 percent and the contribution of exports slipped to just 0.4 percent in the quarter. The housing debacle continued as ...

ADP

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

The ADP Employment Report for January was much higher than the consensus(40) as their survey suggests that 130K new private jobs were generated by the economy in January. That is consistent with a non farm payroll of about 150K on Friday morning. It is also consistent with the message of the ...

Good Morning

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities are posting modest gains in overseas trading. Several factors combined to push prices higher. Asian and European equity markets tumbled. The price declines were not large but remind market participants of the tender and fragile state of the various stock markets. The banking system was part ...

One Last News Story

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1XB.EKWIELc&refer=home

In the News

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1e838d86-cf06-11dc-854a-0000779fd2ac.html http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3f2c5ac8-ce97-11dc-877a-000077b07658.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/business/worldbusiness/30subprime.html?_r=1&oref=slogin http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/autos-pace-decline-europe-before/story.aspx?guid=%7B85C467B1%2DB947%2D4764%2DBA15%2DDAFBBDC1D2B6%7D