Archive for December, 2013

Snow Job

Tuesday, December 31st, 2013

Bill De Blasio will assume the office of Mayor in New York City tomorrow January 1 2014 and if the weather man is correct his ascension to that post should be greeted by some fluffy white stuff on Thursday. The New York Times recounts the history of some major snowstorms ...

End of Year Carnage

Tuesday, December 31st, 2013

The Treasury market is finishing the year with a resounding thud as the 10 year note and the 30 year bond are each closing at multi year high yields. The 10 year note is around 3.015 and the Long Bond is around 3.95. The 10 year is now cheaper than ...

Lepidoptery in December

Tuesday, December 31st, 2013

The 5s 10s 30s butterfly at 34 basis points is trading at both multi year highs and local highs. The recent range (last 30 days) is 27 to 34 so we are at the wide end of that range. On a long term chart you have to get back to ...

Happy New Year

Tuesday, December 31st, 2013

Prices of Treasury coupon securities have registered small losses in overnight trading. One dealer reported a level of activity inconsistent with the holiday season as clients were surprisingly active as the year is drawing to a close. Central banks bought bills and real money bought 2s and 3s. Prop traders ...

Monday Morning Miscellany

Monday, December 30th, 2013

The Treasury market is grinding higher in a very quiet almost year end session. Dealers with whom I have conversed attribute the up trade to some year end needs by clients and some position squaring in the dealer community. Mortgages are a tad better versus Treasuries. One dealer I read took ...

European Funding

Monday, December 30th, 2013

A European based observed notes easy conditions in the money markets there this morning. The Euribor set at .288 was about 0.5 basis points less than expected. In addition the results of the MRO and SMP have left the markets with an extra 70 billion Euros sloshing through the system ...

European Party Pooper

Monday, December 30th, 2013

Via Bloomberg: Schaeuble Says Low-Rate Policies Can’t Last Forever, Bild Says 2013-12-30 11:16:50.843 GMT By Rainer Buergin Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in Bild-Zeitung interview says “low-interest rate policies of the central banks can’t last forever.” * Schaeuble says expansive monetary policies lead to problems for long-term investments: Bild * Schaeuble says yields on German ...

December 30 2013 Opening

Monday, December 30th, 2013

Prices of Treasury coupon securities have registered very modest gain in another holiday affected overnight trading session. The 10 year note is a tick higher in price and with the inverse relationship between price and yield intact the yield is a smidgen lower at 2.996. The 5s 30s spread is ...

PIGS Still Flying

Sunday, December 29th, 2013

For much of 2010 and 2011 and early in 2012 the global fixed income markets fixated on Greece and the other so called PIGS. That situation has becalmed itself like Coleridge's painted ship upon a painted ocean but Professor James Hamilton has an interesting post at Econbrowser regarding debt to ...

Healthy Job Market in 2014?

Sunday, December 29th, 2013

The WSJ has this article on the economy creating new jobs in 2014. According to the author it is likely that the labor market will finally return to the level which prevailed prior to the Great Recession. If the author is correct in this story there will be weeping and gnashing ...