Archive for July, 2008

Corporate Bonds

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Corporate bonds as gauged by the IG 10 are about unchanged on the day. The last quote which I have was 146/147 which is about where it finished yesterday. The index opened around 151 this morning in response to global equity weakness. That is the fourth test of the 150 ...

HSBC Comments on Pending Home Sales

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Here are comments from HSBC economist Ryan Wang on the Pending Homes report: US May Pending Home Sales - Decline * Pending sales fall 4.7% (consensus -3%), but after a big rise in April (revised to +7.1% from +6.3%) * This new level suggests a small drop in existing home sales to around 4.8mn (4.99mn ...

Agency Market

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Agency spreads are tighter by 1 basis point to 2 basis points today as a modicum of stability has crept back into that market. Sales people report that some large end users have decided to stick their big toe into the water and picked up some very cheap paper (relative ...

Gallows Humour

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

I spelled humor with the second u for my UK friends!  Anyway, I thought this was sort of funny. Someone just sent me an ABX run and  the 06-2 A tranche is quoted 8 1/2 bid 9 1/2 offered.  You could drive more than a Mack through that market. You could ...

JPMorgan Comments on the National Federation Of Independent Bussiness Survey

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

The NFIB small business optimism index declined marginally to 89.2 in June from 89.3 in May and is again at a 28-year low. While the overall index didn't change, inflation concerns continue to mount. More firms said they had either been raising prices or had plans to do so in the near-future, and the ...

TIPS

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

TIPS ( Treasury Inflation Protected Securities ) are getting crushed today as the breakeven inflation levels tighten rather significantly.Those spreads had been in a range between 220 and 255 for a very long time. They recently broke out and touched 260. (I clock this always against 10 year part of ...

Thoughts on FNMA and Freddie Mac

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

I get quite a bit of stuff from dealers. I received an email this morning which contains the thoughts of a mortgage trader at a smallish dealer. That does not have any bearing on his analysis and I do know that the gentleman has been around for quite a few ...

Some Opening Comments July 08 2008

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities have edged higher in overnight trading as credit concerns and the potential for gargantuan raising of capital weighs on sentiment. As a corollary, the fear of an economic slowdown born of the credit crunch has intensified. European stocks are lower by about 2 percent . ...

Links for North American Insomniacs

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Some rather gloomy news on the small business front. Profit expectations at a 25 year low in New Zealand. And early trading results from Hong Kong and Tokyo are less than festive. Insurance is about quantifying,measuring and pricing risk. The gentleman who is likely to be the next President of these United States ...

Channeling Claude Rains

Monday, July 7th, 2008

The SEC has discovered that the ratings agencies had a conflict of interest as they collected fees from dealers and then assigned(AAA) ratings to their deals. Captain Renault was shocked to find out that their was gambling at Rick's place,too.