Archive for February, 2008

Warren Buffet(s) Weakened Bond Insurers

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

 The Warren Buffet proposal to reinsure the muni assets of the various troubled bond insurers is a great deal............for shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. Mr Buffet is proposing to buy the safe easy businesses of the troubled bond insurers. He would take the pristine and leave them with the sullied subprime ...

Treasury Market Post the Buffet

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

The fare served at the buffet was not palatable for fixed income traders. The market has backed up substantially and the 2 year note is now trading close to 2.00 percent again with a yield of 1.98 percent. That is an increase of about 6 basis points from my first ...

More on the Avuncular Sage of Omaha

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

http://www.cnbc.com/id/23125353

Buffet (not Jimmy but Warren) on bond insurers and IG9 news

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

 Warren Buffet is on CNBC, I am told, offering to reinsure the bond insurers. For a healthy premium I suspect. Separately, the credit markets have seen some very ugly price action in Europe . The IG9 ,which is an index of 125 blus chip names has widened 7 basis points overnight ...

Overnight Flows

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

 Some overnight flows in Treasury paper: Bank seller of 10 years. Central Bank buying of 5 years. Hot money seller of 2 year. Modest end user buying of the belly of curve. In general, volumes remain light as participants focus on the retail sales report  scheduled for tomorrow as well as the Bernanke testimony on ...

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities are registering modest losses in overseas trading of US Treasury debt. The yield on the benchmark 2 year note has risen about 2.4  basis points to 1.929 percent while the yield on the benchmark 10 year note has jumped 1 basis point to 3.622 percent.  That ...

Some Overnight News

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

German business confidence surprises the pundits. Credit Suisse profit story. Subprime spreads.

Credit Crisis Continues

Monday, February 11th, 2008

AIG Downunder. Manhattan real estate

February 11 2008 Recap

Monday, February 11th, 2008

 Prices of Treasury coupon securities meandered about in a narrow range today bobbing and weaving (a la Floyd Patterson ) with the rhythyms of the equity markets. The equity markets dropped over 100 Dow points early in the day as credit woes weighed on sentiment ( AIG, Standard Charter and ...

Corporate Recap

Monday, February 11th, 2008

 The frequency of my posting to this blog is in direct proportion to the level of activity in the marketplace and participants report that the level of activity is light. That thought accurately reflects the goings on in the corporate bond market today. The new issuance pipeline slowed to a ...