Archive for April, 2008

Closing Commentary April 03 2008

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

 Prices of Treasury coupon securities have posted bifurcated results with the 2 year note and the 5 year note seeing small 1 basis point yield increases.The 2 year closed with a yield of 1.90 percent and the 5 year closed at 2.75 percent. The longer maturities posted modest price gains ...

Corporate Bond Recap

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

 Corporate bond spreads opened firm and remained firm throughout the day.Spreads are a couple of basis points tighter and just as they remained steadfast in the face of issuance pressure yesterday they did not soften today in spite of some weak economic data today. Most of the activity in this ...

Agency Recap

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

 Agency spreads are unchanged in the 10 year sector and about 1 basis point wider in the 2 year through 5 year sector.Freddie Mac priced $3billion 3 years at T+97 and the issue performed well as it is currently 96 bid. I did hear of good bank buying in that ...

Miscellany

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

In corporate bond land spreads as measured by the IG 10 are bettter by about 2 basis points. The index is around 118 and has rallied significantly since Tuesday when it opened 135ish. There has been robust demand and active trading in the Oracle mega deal which priced yesterday. Each ...

Delinquent: Loan Payments,Not Juvenile

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Bloomberg carries this story about late  consumer loan payments hitting highest level since 1992.(That was the year when it was about the economy,stupid. And the sky opened and a Golden Age ensued)

MBS Early

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

 Sources in the mortgage sector report broad based buying this morning from end users as well as hot money clients. The buying has been concentrated in the 51/2s and Dwarf 51/2s. Rolls are trading lower as funding issues remain a problem.

Some Overnight Flows

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

 Some overnight flows: Real money buyers 10s Bank buyers of 10s vs 2s Central bank buyers of 10s Asian buyer 2s Japanese buyer 10s Swap desk buyers of 2s ea

Opening Comments for April 03 2008

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

 Prices of Treasury coupon securities have posted modest gains in overseas trading  .The yield on the benchmark 2 year note has slipped 1 basis point to 1.89 percent. The yield on the benchmark 5 year note has fallen by 1 basis point as has the yield on its longer dated ...

Another Victim

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

BayernLB, the second largest state owned German bank, takes a $6.7 billion writedown on subprime assets.In an act of finacial legerdemain,  the bank will transfer 24 billion euros worth of assets to a new finance company. Why does it matter where these merdurinous assets are domiciled? I believe that the Mellon Bank pioneered ...

Some Links for April 3 2008

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

The Financial Times on the increasing role of GSEs. Pension accounting problems in the UK The FT is a treasure trove this morning. WestLB will focus on "core competencies". Maybe they should have been doing that all along. There must be a gene which forces people to use manager speak! Hank Paulson genuflects ...