Archive for February, 2008

Treasury Closes

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

The market was rather dynamic and fluid in late trading as the Ambac story received a wide viewing. So I offer late closes for the benchmark issues: 2 year note 2.05  +8 basis points 5 year note 2.86  +6 basis points 10 year note 3.81 +4 basis points 30year bond 4.58  +4 basis points

Ambac Story

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Here is a link to the CNBC story about a bailout of Ambac early next week. The main sentence is framed in the subjunctive mode and necessarily implies quite a bit of uncertainty. Maybe the most important kernel of truth contained in this episode is the depth of the short ...

February 22 2008 Recap

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

 Prices of Treasury coupon securities registered modest losses in another fascinating trading session. The market had posted mixed results in the 2year through 10 year portion of the curve with the 2year and the 5year about unchanged and the 10year with small losses resulting in a yield rise of between ...

Treasury Update

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

 Benchmark Treasury issues are posting solid gains now as they follow in lockstep the movements of the equity indices. With stocks trading near the lows of the day bonds are enjoying a robust bid. TIP spreads have retreated somewhat since moving sharpy wider early in the week on the stronger than ...

Update

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

 The markets are thin and illliquid this morning. The Treasury market has surrendered the gains achieved in European trading. I have not been able to locate a clear and concise answer as to why. The best surmise seems to be that the stability in the stock market is sapping some ...

February 22 2008 Opening Comments

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

 Prices of Treasury coupon securites have pushed higher as heightened fears of a US recession embolden some investors to jump into the market. Yields on benchmark Treasury issues have declined between 1 basis point and 4 basis points. The volatility in the yield curve is unabated with the curve a ...

Some Overnight News February 22, 2008

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

 NY Times on rescue packages. European stocks trading weakly. Eurozone growth refuses to crumble. While Japanese economy slows.

Closing Comments

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities have surged today in an riotous and raucous session which produced a significant resteepening of the yield curve and a bit of a mini interest rate cycle for the benchmark 2 year note. The very weak reading on the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (-24 vs ...

Agency Market

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

 Spreads in the Agency market are tighter across the curve today. Shorter maturity paper has benefitted the most with 2 year and 3 year sector paper tighter by 4 basis points to 6 basis points. Bonds in the 5 year sector are better by 1 basis point to 2 basis ...

Corporate Bonds

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

 Corporate bonds have surrendered some of the tightening that they had experienced this morning. Spreads are now tighter by 2 basis points to 3 basis points as the weak data put the kibosh on an attempt at resucitation. There is very little paper trading and there is a high expectation ...