Archive for May, 2008
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
The CPI data this morning was surprisingly weak and the TIPS market reflect a degree of skepticism about the veracity of the data (or if not its veracity then the sustainability of such benign inflation reports). I just conversed with a portfolio manager and happy holder of some TIPS who ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Inflation,CPI and TIP Spreads
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
JPMorgan's Dimon reveals that current charges for the coup which resulted in the swift demise of Bear Stearns will total $9billion, which is 50 percent greater than originally anticipated.
There is a bull market in foreclosures.
Bloomberg has a Global Confidence Index and the news service reports that survey respondents are in ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Some Links May 14 2008
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Prices of Treasury coupon securities continued to slump in overnight trading as inflation fears resonate ahead of the CPI report later this morning. Oil stoked those fears as it traded at nearly $127. A chorus of Federal Reserve official spoke yesterday and many of those who spoke expressed concerns and ...
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Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
The Financial Times has an illuminating article about a potential policy shift at the Federal Reserve. Under policy guidelines promulgated by former Chairman Greenspan, the Federal Reserve would not seek out and prick asset bubbles . Federal Reserve Bank of New York President Geithner challenged that view in a January ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on On Bursting Bubbles
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Treasury bond prices have weakened further and the 30 year bond has broken through what should have been a bit of a support level at 4.599 percent. That was the level at which the 30 year bond cleared in the refunding auction last week. Auction levels oftentimes act as markers ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Levels
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Prices of Treasury coupon securities tumbled sharply today against a backdrop of negative economic news, negative Fedspeak, and a surfeit of corporate bond supply. Additionally, there was a Bloomberg story which noted that the British Bankers Association was considering the method by which Libor is set and traders came to ...
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
There has been chunky buying of mortgages and at last report they were 2 ticks tighter to 10s. One dealer reports heavy buying by hedge funds, insurance companies and money managers. The same dealer notes that several large dealers have quarter end at month end and analysts at this shop ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on MBS
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
A friend emailed this to me and it is a good read.
sorry - i just thought this was way fun and worth passing along -
> Britain is Repossessing the U.S.A.
>
> A Message from John Cleese
>
>
> To: The citizens of the United States of America:
>
> In light of your failure to ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Dry British Humour
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
The retail sales report was stronger than expected and I will leave the detailed exegesis of that report to others. I will take note of one item which did particularly catch my eye and that is the segment on sales of gasoline. The report from the Census Bureau indicated that ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on A Thought On Retail Sales
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
There has been a rather dramatic flattening of the Treasury yield curve this morning. The yield on the 2 year note has jumped 14 basis points to 2.42 percent while the yield on the benchmark 10 year has spiked higher by 7 basis points to 3.84 percent. The shift had ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Curvature