Archive for August, 2008

Credit Opening

Friday, August 15th, 2008

IG 10 opening about 3/4 basis point tighter at 134 1/4.  One dealer notes that the trifecta of oil, equity and the dollar has worked to keep spreads tight. However, the index is fully priced relative to single names and it will take improvement there to spark a big move ...

Opening Comments August 15 2008

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities have barely budged in overnight trading. Each of the benchmark issues has gained 1 basis point in yield. The 2 year note yields 2.44 percent. The 5 year note yields 3.16 percent. The 10 year note yields 3.90 percent and the Long Bond yields 4.52 ...

Macroblog

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Macroblog was published by Dave Altig when he was at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. He moved to the Atlanta Fed and suspended publication. He is back in business and I commend the blog to readers of this site and to anyone seeking intelligent commentary on macro issues.

And Now For The Good News!

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Merrill Lynch will receive a huge tax benefit for its prodigious subprime losses, according to the Financial Times. The FT story says that Merrill is unlikely to pay taxes in England for decades. There are ways to avoid taxes but taking a $29billion hit is not high on the list.

Half Day

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

I have a very bad cold but thought I would be able to blog. The cold wins and blogging loses. See you tomorrow when I hope I will be feeling better.

More MBS

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

Mortgages continue to take a drubbing with hedge funds, servicers and originators all selling. The 10 year is now +142 basis points to swaps. One dealer notes that the all time wide is +150 and it seems as though we are on an inexorable Long March to reach that level.The ...

MBS

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

MBS are about 2 basis points wider to swaps. They were weak initially and some money manager buying forced spreads back to unchanged.Subsequently, money manager selling and servicer selling caused spreads to widen back out to current levels.

Overnight Flow

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

Some overnight Treasury flow. Prop sellers of off the run 10s. Asian sellers 10s. Money manager buys 5s vs 10s. Japanese end user buys 5s vs 2s. Separately, there was bond supply in the overseas markets. Germany issued 6 billion 10s, Italy issued 2 .5 billion 5s and Portugal sold 750million 10s.

Credit Open

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

There is some leakage in spreads this morning as the IG 10 is opening about 4 wider at 134.

Opening Comments August 13 2008

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities have registered mixed results thus far in overseas trading as markets have reversed some of the curve steepening manifested yesterday. The yield on the 2 year note has climbed 2 basis points to 2.45 percent. Similarly, the yield on the 5 year note has gained ...