Archive for July, 2008

Rain in Spain

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

This is an interesting article from Bloomberg which a fully paid up subscriber passed along last week . Spain,with a AAA rating, postponed a 15 year bond sale because of lack of interest. It would seem that such news deserves more notice than it received.

Rescuing the Drowning

Saturday, July 12th, 2008

The London Times is reporting in its Sunday editon that the US Treasury is planning a $15 billion capital infusion for FNMA and Freddie Mac. There is nothing definititve in the article about the timing,though there is speculation that it would occur before the markets open Monday.  According to the article ...

Federal Reseve ,GSEs and Discount Window

Friday, July 11th, 2008

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602002&sid=aHRDpoqZEtmg&refer=markets

FDIC Employees Working Overtime

Friday, July 11th, 2008

IndyMac has is the most recent victim of the subprime crisis and associated credit crunch as FDIC shutters the firm as the weekend begins. I imagine a team of auditors will be working Saturday counting light bulbs and staplers.

Closing Comments July 11 2008

Friday, July 11th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities plunged of a cliff today in a rout across the curve. The decimation of the wealth stored in US Treasury debt, once viewed as the safest of all venues, resulted from the reports that the US government was planning to bail out FNMA and Freddie ...

Credit Default Swaps On US Treasury Securities

Friday, July 11th, 2008

Earlier today someone asked or commented about  CDS on Treasury debt. I had never heard of them and had no idea that such an instrument existed and I flippantly dismissed that commenters question.. I have not the time to go back and find out the name of the commenter but I ...

An Agency Recapitalization Proposal for the Weekend.

Friday, July 11th, 2008

I had a conversation with a research analyst at a large investment bank whose purview is the GSEs. This particular gentleman believes that a direct government bail out of Freddie Mac and FNMA is an unlikely government event. He posits that it is an unlikely event at the outset of ...

Corporates

Friday, July 11th, 2008

The corporate bond market is virtually closed and there is very little trading, except in brokerage names.In that regard the CDS of Lehman which closed yesterday around 335 are currently 385/395. One salesman with whom I spoke noted that the new issue market was inactive today and, in his opinion, it ...

MBS

Friday, July 11th, 2008

Mortgages have tightened by about 10 basis points to Treasury debt. This is a credit story as investors view any potential bail out of the GSEs by taxpayers as beneficial to fixed income holders. In the regard the FNMA and Freddie Mac pass throughs are outperforming GNMA paper by about ...

Spreads

Friday, July 11th, 2008

Spreads have retreated following the meaningles statement from the Treasury Secretary. CDS on senior paper is now 55/60 after being as tight as 42/47. Opening quotes were around 80. Subordinated paper is quoted 235/245. The earliest quote I had this mornig was 270/290. The benchmark debt of these issuers has also given ...