Archive for July, 2008

July 07 2008 Recap

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Prices of treasury coupon securities took a wild ride today as rumors about the GSEs sparked an equity sell off and a subsequent flight to the safe harbor that is the Treasury market. Late in the day stocks erased large portions of their losses and bonds surrendered a large portion ...

Agency Market

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Agency spreads have been battered by the turmoil of which I wrote earlier with spreads on actively traded benchmarks about 7 basis points wider on the day. As best I can ascertain, trading volumes have been light and the alacrity with which the move occurred has shocked traders. Many were ...

Corporates

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Corporate bond spreads as measured by the IG 10 are about unchanged on the day after being several basis points tighter in early trading. Cash market trading has been practically non existent and bid/offer spreads are routinely 10 basis points to 15 basis points wide. One informant suggests that if ...

Freddie and Fannie, Agonistes

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Freddie Mac and FNMA stock is each off over 20 percent as I peck away here at 115PM New York time.There are two stories which I have gleaned from participants. The first story relates to the various private mortgage insurers who are each in extremis, RDN, GNW, MTG and PMI. ...

Bear Stearns Haunts the Federal Reserve

Monday, July 7th, 2008

I was traveling over the holiday weekend and I have only caught up with this story this morning. The Federal Reserve in its weekly statistical release reported that the fair value assets of the holdings of the Maiden Lane LLC were $28.893 billion on at the close of business on ...

MBS and a Little Swaps

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Mortgages continued to be sold by money managers and hedge funds. MBS spreads are underperforming swaps by about 4 basis points today.There are several factors at work here which motivate the sellers. Some investors were lucky enough to buy the absolute wides back in March and these happy holders have ...

Credit Opening

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Credit spreads as gauged by the IG 10 are opening about 1 1/2 basis points tighter. One large dealer recently quoted the index 145 3/4 to 146 3/4. The index has been as tight as 144 but that level induced selling.

Overnight Flow

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Some overnight flow: Bank buying of 10s. Asian bill buyers Central banks buying the belly of the curve. Japanese buyers of 2s and 5s.

Earnings Season

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Earnings season is about to begin in earnest as the calendar page has flipped to July. Wells Fargo and Merrill report on July 9 and JPM and CIT on the following day. Troubled Citibank is set to release the details of its most recent quarter on Friday.Industrial company earnings will ...

Some Links July 07 2008

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Here is a story fron the Independent which chronicles the impact of the economic downturn on Las Vegas. Merrill Lynch ,which analysts expect to take additional write downs, is expected to part with the Crown jewels, its stakes in Blackrock and Bloomberg. And the Bloomberg story on the drop in industrial production ...