Archive for September, 2008

Mortgages and Swaps

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Mortgages are two ticks tighter to swaps by 2 ticks. There has been mortgage buying and receiving in swaps the last two days by mortgage servicers, hedge funds, and real money. The buying has been broad based.Swap spreads are wider by 2 basis points in the 2 year sector, 1 ...

Corporate Bonds

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Corporate bonds are softer this morning but there is no easy means to put a spread measure on the sogginess of the secondary market as virtually nothing is trading. The IG 10 is 147 which is pretty close to where it closed last night.

HSBC on the Labor Data

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Here is HSBC take on the labor report. Sorry for the lack of blogging as I was having PC problems. All seems well now. * A massive 0.4ppt rise in the unemployment rate to 6.1% from 5.7% (consensus     5.7%, HSCB 5.9%), now at the highest rate since September 2003. With      ...

Peoples Bank of China and Lake Hiawatha New Jersey

Friday, September 5th, 2008

 I have a good friend who has been in the business for many years who always has a good story to tell. Many years ago he worked for a now defunct bond house with the name Berkeley Capital. We were in some financial district watering hole and someone else in ...

Opening Comments September 05 2008

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupons securities continue to march higher amidst global fears that economic growth will slow and that the level of growth will remain diminished for a protracted period. Against that background, the equity market rout which visited US equities yesterday continued around the world. Major Asian indices fell ...

Corporate Bonds

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

Corporate bonds leaked wider over the course of the day and finished with the IG 10 at 146 1/4 basis points.  That market did not enjoy the same demand as some other investment grade sectors as the anticipation of very heavy supply in the new issue market has engendered a ...

Closing Comments September 4 2008

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities surged higher today as a generalized need for duration and concerns about economic growth motivated a wave of fixed income purchases. Other factors such as the sharp drop in the stock market and statements by ECB major domo Trichet contributed to the uneasy tone. The ...

Agency Spreads

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

Benchmark agency spreads are closing the day about one basis point wider in the 2 year through 10 year sector. That is a tad weaker than they had been earlier in the day. Once again I would note that this is excellent price action and suggestive of real buying which ...

MBS

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

Mortgages are closing about 6 ticks tighter to Treasuries and about 3 basis points tighter to swaps.One dealer described the flows as "chunky". The same dealer noted that the buyers today were from the genus "long term". Some profit taking emerged late in the day but MBS held its gains. The ...

Midday Update

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

There has been substantial buying today of mortgages and Treasuries as well as receiving in swaps. I think that there has been some buying by the convexity crowd but I also believe that some of this is the "breakout" of which I wrote yesterday. For the time being lower bond ...