Archive for June, 2009

Swaps Mortgages and Vol

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Real money was paying in swaps today as the market rallied. Speculators and mortgage folks were busy receiving. Two year swap spreads widened 2 1/4 basis points to 42 1/2. Five year spreads narrowed 3/4 basis point to 40 3/4. Ten year spreads narrowed 1 3/4 basis points to 22 1/4. ...

Miscellany

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Corporate bond spreads are unchanged in listless trading. As I have noted here many times those spreads have been on fire over the last several months. Conversations with market participants leads me to conclude that we are a junction where the market shall pause and digest the gains. While we are ...

Monetization of the Dect

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

The Open Market Desk purchased $6.45 billion of securities from the $31.3 billion offered to them. Of that total, nearly $6 billion was the new 3 year note upon which the ink from its printing is still wet. I wonder how many of that issue the street offered in to the Desk. When ...

Musical Interlude

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Now playing at Across the Curve corporate headquarters  Manassas which was a collaborative effort of Stephen Stills of Crosby Stills and Nash and Chris Hillman of the Byrds. It was published in 1972.

MBS

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Mortgages are opening about 1 1/2 ticks better than swaps. Origination has been light and the Federal Reserve has been an active buyer. Lately the down in coupon trade has been a super star. This morning there has been some reversal and profit taking and that has generated demand for the ...

Securitisation

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

The FT published a story this morning regarding an Obama Administration plan to overhaul the financial system which would force lenders to keep 5 percent of the credit risk of bundled  securities. In this way securities firms would have "skin in the game" and would have less incentive to construct ...

Goldman Sachs on Timing of Federal Reserve Tightening Process

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Following the release of the "strong" (-345K strong?) labor report the futures market priced in Federal Reserve tightening by the end of this year. I do not think that will happen because I do not believe that the Federal Reserve will raise rates while the unemployment rate is rising. A ...

Some Cash Market Corporate Bond Quotes

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Here are opening quotes from a dealer on selected financial names. Each issue is unchanged from the prior evening's close: BAC 7 5/8 2019   370/360 C      8 1/2  2019   425/420 JPM 4.65 2016   220/215 WFC  5 3/4 2018   255/245. Once again each issue is unchanged.

Libor

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Libor set lower once again today at 0.61313 after setting at 0.61438 yesterday.

Bond Market Open June 16 2009

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Prices of Treasury coupon securities are posting mixed changes in overnight trading. Most benchmark issues are registering modest price declines with the exception of the Long Bond which is unchanged. The yield on that instrument is 4.56 percent. The yield on the 2 year note increased 3 basis points to 1.25 ...