Archive for July, 2008

Treasury Market Update

Monday, July 28th, 2008

I did my closing recap earlier today at around 430PM New York time. It is seven hours later and in response to the news from Merrill bond prices have edged higher and the curve is a tad flatter. The yield on the 2 year note has declined one basis point ...

Merrill Lynch

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Merrill Lynch made significant news after the close of New York trading.The company will record a pretax write-down of $5.7 billion. Merrill will sell $30.6 billion gross notional amount of super senior ABS CDOs to an affiliate of Loan Star Funds for a purchase price of $6.7 billion. That is about ...

July 28 2008 Recap

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities surged today as a general sense of malaise gripped the equity markets which have registered declines of about 2.0 percent. There is no blatantly obvious reason for the equity market declines and I would postulate that it reflects an epiphany that the worst of the credit ...

MBS

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Mortgages are about 5 ticks tighter to swaps today. Trading activity has been depressed in this market also. I had heard of some money manager buying early and little since. One veteran salesman described the activity today as "mostly professional". As evidence of that he pointed to the out performance ...

Corporate Bonds

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Corporate bonds are slightly wider today when gauged by the IG 10 in a day of lackluster trading. Cash bonds are a tad softer, too, but volume has been extremely light.The new issue market was closed today.

Relative Value

Monday, July 28th, 2008

In the course of my travels this morning I spoke with a Treasury bond trader who suggested that the 2029 thru 2031 part of the Treasury curve is cheap to the 2036 through 2038 sector. He suggests that the liquidity effect of the bond has something to do with the ...

Midmorning Update

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Prices of benchmark Treasury issues are registering significant price gains this morning. The yield curve is steepening with the yield on the 2 year note dropping 11 basis points and the yield on the 10 year down about 8 basis points.There has been chunky buying of mortgages this morning and ...

Credit Opening

Monday, July 28th, 2008

The IG 10 opened at 135, which was a tad tighter and is now quoted 135/136 which is unchanged from the Friday close. WAMU traded as wide as 21 points up front on Friday and is currently quoted 15 1/2 to 16 1/2. I know of no reason for the improvement this ...

MBS

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Mortgages are opening a tad  tighter this morning on some money manager buying. One dealer notes that Asian buying has not been as heavy as expected and sees spreads leaking wider into month end.

Minneapolis Fed President Stern in the FT

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Stern had a sit down with the FT. He thinks that real rates are too low. He thinks that the 2 percent funds rate is a shock absorber and postions the economy to take weakness well. He also believes that it will be several more quarters before the ...