Archive for July, 2008

July 10 2008 Closing Comments

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities are posting small mixed changes today. The Treasury market has been a bit of a sideshow today and the action has been in the credit fears which have towered over the market in the form of the concerns about the GSEs and concerns about Lehman. ...

Corporate Bonds

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

The world of credit is a strange place today. There is fear in the markets and loyal readers will see that I have focused much of my energy today on the woes of the GSEs. What I deem strange is that for all the hoopla, most spreads are little changed.The ...

A Sanguine View on Agency Paper

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Agency spreads have improved significantly from the blow out levels of earlier this morning. To be clear, I am referring to the spread at which benchmark Agency paper trades to similar benchmark treasury debt.The 10 year sector is actually 2 basis points tighter on the day and is 10 basis ...

Lehman

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

THis is probably old news but in my absence rumor had it that PIMCO had stopped trading with Lehman. Sellers bludgeoned the stock .It is currently off 10 percent for the day and is off its lows by nearly $2. Lehman CDS closed yesterday around 275 and currently trade around 300. Returning ...

Back From the Dentist

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

I have returned from a visit to the local tooth doctor. CDS on FNM and Freddie are wider than when I wrote earlier. Someone sent me this quote earlier (about 1120AM New York time). The senior debt is 79 /84 which is just a tad wider than earlier. The quotes ...

FNMA FRE CDS

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

While the cash bonds of FNMA and Freddie Mac have been clobbered at the opening of trading, the CDS remain close to last night's closing levels. CDS on the senior paper was quoted 78/83 about 30 minutes ago and the subordinated paper was 215/225 and had traded at 220. Each level ...

Agency Agony Again

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Agency spreads are opening dramatically wider. In the 2 year sector spreads are about 8 basis points wider and in the 5 year sector they have moved about 12 basis points. Ten year paper is 8 basis points to 10 basis points wider. The Wall Street Journal has a lead story ...

Overnight Treasury Flow

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Some overnight Treasury flow:Swap Desk buyers of 10s. Bank sellers of 5s. Asian buyers of Agency Discos. Hedge fund seller of 10s. Central Bank seller of off the run 2s. Swap desk seller of 2s

Links

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

In my too lengthy opening comments I mentioned several Bloomberg stories and I failed to link to any of them.  I will drop the various links here and will not elaborate on any of them. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=abT98mv4UtNI&refer=news http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/780f391c-4e0f-11dd-820e-000077b07658.html http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aI94mfIpm4i8 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a7NPAG.LEjHQ

Opening Comments July 10 2008

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities have edged slightly lower in overseas trading. Major equity markets in Europe have suffered declines while in Asia the Hang Seng and the Nikkei posted marginal gains.The financial backdrop remains rather ugly. Before I write this piece I peruse various news services to gather info. ...