Archive for September, 2008

Presidential Speech

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

President Bush addressed the nation and presented  an elementary and basic recitation of the history of the financial crisis to the remnant of the "Dancing With The Stars" audience which had not switched to a baseball game or a cable movie. For those who hung around he described a dangerous outcome if ...

Miscellany

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Mortgages lagged swaps most of the day but recovered late in the day as swap spreads blew out. The FNMA 5 1/2 s closed about 1 tick tighter to swaps. I have heard reports that three month libor will be up another 16 basis points tomorrow with a set around 3.63  One ...

McCain

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

John  McCain attempted another Hail Mary pass today with his announcement that he was suspending his campaign to return to Washington to be a party to the bailout bill negotiations.  The man is a risk taker for sure and for those of us into the horse race aspect of the ...

Morgan Stanley

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

A  reader with the screen name credit trader relates the resurgent trials and tribulations of Morgan Stanley following the infusion of capital at Goldman Sachs. He left the following in a comment at a previous post: JJ - MS is getting crushed in CDS land…now 770/790 (+260bps) from a 500/520 open…i ...

Corporates

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

The IG 10 is at the wides of the day at 165/166 which is about 7 basis points wider than the closing levels of yesterday.The 5 year and 10 year Caterpillar bonds which priced so cheaply yesterday have each edged tighter to 318 bid. They were priced yesterday at 320 and ...

Closing Comments (Part One)

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

I am going to write this differently this evening because the market is in overdrive and the price action is frightening once again. The 2 year note has breached the 2.00 barrier again and trades at 1.93 percent. That is lower by 15 basis points on the day. That is ...

Fever Pitch Demand for Sanctuary

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Just a little while ago the Treasury conducted an auction of 7 day bills.  Admittedly, this is a very short piece of paper and normally would not be worthy of a mention here. This one is another unusual result and is worth mentioning. In the brokers market prior to the auction the ...

Not Quite Panic But Disarray

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

The money markets are in disarray again. It has not reached the crisis proportions of last Wednesday and Thursday but the situation is very ugly. Libor rates have increased significantly with settings for one month and longer maturities up 20 to 25 basis points from yesterday.There is huge demand for ...

IG 10

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

IG 10 is opening about unchanged from last night's close as it currently sits 159/160.

Opening Comment September 24 2008

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities are registering, on balance, marginal price gains in overseas trading. The status of the Federal bailout of the financial industry dominates the trading landscape. Testimony yesterday by Paulson and Bernanke failed to assuage the skepticism of legislators, and while the package is not dead, momentum ...