Archive for May, 2014

UK Policymaker Calls for Rate Hikes

Thursday, May 29th, 2014

Martin Weale is a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee. In an interview with the FT last evening he had the temerity to call for the bank to raise short term rates sooner rather than later. Via the FT:   MPC member urges UK rate rise ‘sooner’ rather than later By ...

China Wealth Fund Unable to Repay Investors

Thursday, May 29th, 2014

According to the website Forexlive.com (about which I know nothing) an investment fund in China,China Bejing  Safe Bank Investment Funds, is unable to repay 600 million yuan to investors. The money was due to investors in March and the investment firm received a three month extension. The story does not ...

Death of Volatility

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

FT Alphaville has a wonderful piece on the death of volatility. The article focuses on the steep decline in vol in the oil market and then ruminates about the systemic decline in vol. I thought this was the particularly pithy paragraph which discusses the systemic decline. The analysis is from ...

Japanese Buyers

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

There was much conversation  today about foreign buyers as one of the principal culprits in the extended plunge in rates. The MOF just released data on Japanese buying of foreign bonds in the week ending May 23. In that week Japanese investors purchased 90.5 billion yen worth of overseas bonds. ...

Housing Market Giving Fed Agita and Angst

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

The housing market is stagnating and this is a cause of concern for Janet Yellen and her companions at the Federal Reserve. The attached link to a lengthy Bloomberg story details the situation which includes the lack of available credit. I think it is an important story and Ms Yellen ...

Swap Spreads

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

Swap spreads were mixed today.Spreads ended the day unchanged to slightly tighter out to 5 years and about 3/4 basis point wider from 7s to 30s.One dealer noted better paying by hedge funds and mortgage based clients and insurance companies.

Disney Pricing

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

Disney sold a four tranche $2billion bond offering today. Look at the pricing as the outfit that hawks Mickey Mouse received a fantasy like pricing spread with 3 year paper just 20 over Treasuries. What hath God and the FOMC wrought? Disney 2 bln 4 part priced 500mm  3 yr fxd +20 750mm  5 ...

5 Year Auction Results

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

Via CRT Capital: ** 5s stop at 1.513% vs. 1.506% 1PM bid, 0.7 bp tail -- directs take 10.5% vs. 13% norm -- indirects take 50.4% vs. 44.9% norm -- dealers get 39.1% vs. 41.3% norm -- cover comes to 2.73, vs 2.65 average -- 25.5% awarded at high against 53.3% average. ** The small tail is ...

Market Thoughts

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

Here is a piece from Richard Gilhooly on the 5 year note auction and the recent rally. He like the steepener. Via Richard Gilhooly of TDSecurities: Volatile trading conditions persist as we head into the 5yr note auction at 1pm, with both the current 5yr note and the WI trading through the ...

Treasury Market Thoughts

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

I wrote a piece earlier on some of the reasons for the uptrade in the Treasury market. David Ader whose work I frequently excerpt from at this blog just sent out an email in which he said that he had been fielding questions all day on the origins of today's ...