Archive for March, 2008

Some Mortgage Color

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

The MBS market is showing some stability and improvement but maybe the notion that I am writing that as MBS lag Treasuries by a little over 5/8 of a point is a more precise  indicator of the noxious  state of the market.  Flows have been mixed but still weighted to the ...

Some Midday Treasury Stuff

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

 Even the Treasury market is growing ts own little patches of illiquidity. One veteran trader with whom I spoke notes that within the Treasury market there is a bit of tiering occuring as investors want to be in the current hot run active issue. So he notes that the rolls ...

Explicit Guarantee Story

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

 At the height of the nuttiness a little earlier ,before the rumor about an explicit guarantee of agency debt by the Federal Govenmet provoked a round of profit taking, the 2 year note yield dipped to 1.54 percent and the 2 year /10 year spread reached 210 basis points. The ...

Wild Opening

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

 Economic fundamentals are of secondary import today. Greed and fear drive markets and if that is the case fear is in the driver's seat .The proximate cause of the meltdown is the story that the Carlyle Group's publicly traded mortgage fund had missed margin calls yesterday. If I read the ...

Some Opening Comments

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

 Prices of Treasury coupon securities are posting solid gains in overnight trading. The themes remain the same with the credit crunch ,chunky losses caused by tainted assets, a steeper yield curve and a weak dollar driving trading. The yield on the benchmark 2 year note has slipped by 4 basis ...

Some Overnight Links

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

 This story just printed in the New York Times and has been floating about the markets the last several days. The story which has been making the rounds of the market has this transaction as the proximate cause of many of the recent spate of margin calls as the trade ...

Rumor Mongering

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

I do not believe That I have posted many rumors on this site since i began on January 2. I heard one earlier today and hesitated to post it. But i have since heard the same story from a second source and now feel liberated and will post it. (When ...

More Closing Commentary

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

 Corporate bond spreads are closing the day a couple of basis points wider. The tone though is heavy and the market remains sloppy. Phillips brought a multi tranche deal with 5 year, 10 year and 30 year tranches.The initial talk yesterday was T+185, T+195 and T+ 205 in 5 year,10 ...

March 5 2008 Partial Recap

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

 Prices of Treasury coupon securities have taken another wild ride today as the twin gales of inflationary pressures and credit concerns buffet investors. As I mentioned in an earlier posting TIP spreads have widened dramatically (and by even more than I noted earlier) and breakeven spreads in the 10 year ...

Another Mini Update

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

 CMBS spreads are out about 25 basis points between yesterday and today with about 15 basis points happening today.That is for the widely traded AAA A4 tranches . Seperately,I have heard of Central Bank buying in 2 year Treasury space as well as in 3 year agencies. Another dealer reported a ...