Archive for February, 2008

February 25 2008 Recap

Monday, February 25th, 2008

 Prices of Treasury coupon securities tumbled today as the prospect of an Ambac rescue and a reaffirmation of the AAA rating of MBIA lessened the appeal of riskless assets. Supply from other markets caused a little dyspepsia for the Treasury market,too. As yields drifted higher I heard of outright selling ...

MBIA

Monday, February 25th, 2008

S and P has removed MBIA from creditwatch and reaffirmed their AAA rating  with a negative outlook. And on the seventh day the Lord rested. Stocks are posting sharp gains and the risk free Treasury 10 year has been humbled. The 10  year Treasury is yielding close to 3.90 percent as ...

ABX

Monday, February 25th, 2008

Today is the day when the faithful remnant of subprime traders pores over the remittance reports to get some sense of the worth or lack thereof in their subprime holdings. Basically ,it was more of the same with delinquencies rising and prepay speeds slowing. The 06-1 structures had been a bit ...

Corporate Update

Monday, February 25th, 2008

 Corporate bond spreads opened the day tighter by 3 basis points to 4 basis points as the residue of hope for a happy ending to the monoline insurance problem persisted over the weekend and in equity markets overseas. Those gains faded on a story that Goldman Sachs had issued a ...

Existing Home Sales

Monday, February 25th, 2008

 Sales of Existing homes dropped less than expected and there was a slight upward revision to the previous months data. Last month was originally reported at 4.89k and that has been revised to 4.91K. Sales in January totalled 4.89K down slightly from the revised data and above the consensus forecast ...

February 25, 2008 Opening Comments

Monday, February 25th, 2008

 Prices of Treasury coupon securities are sagging in overnght trading as strength in overseas equities market diminishes the safe haven allure of Treasuries. The market is still hopeful of a salutary conclusion to the tribulations of the monoline insurers and awaits some resolution to that ongoing saga. So at the ...

Some Monday Morning News

Monday, February 25th, 2008

Ambac inches closer to a deal says the WSJ. TAF collateral. An ugly echo of the most discordant of all years in recent American political history, 1968. Ebullient equities enthuse European investors.

Some Sunday Evening News

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

Confidence slumps in New Zealand, too. An interesting take on the Turkish invasion of Iraq. I guess this is good news.

ABX Comments

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

 The ABX market received a battering in late trading on Friday. The day in most markets was quiet and as a result of the snow storm on the East Coast many players did not make it to their work stations or if they did they departed early for home and ...

More Ambac

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

This story from the FT has a little more meat to it.