Archive for May, 2014

FX

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

Via Mark Chandler at Brown Brothers and note the paragraph on the big decline in bond yields in Germany and Italy: he US dollar remains firm against most of the major and active emerging market currencies. The euro and yen have thus far remained confined to yesterday's ranges while sterling saw ...

May 28 2014 Opening

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

Prices of Treasury coupon securities have registered modest gains when measured against levels which prevailed last evening at around 1000PM New York time. In addition, the powerful flattening move which occurred yesterday has witnessed a very small reversal since 1000PM last night. However the curve is still appreciably flatter than ...

Interesting Tidbit from Atlanta Federal Reserve President Lockhart

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

Fed's Lockhart Says Some Parts of U.S. Job Market Near Full Employment By REUTERSMAY 27, 2014, 9:28 P.M. E.D.T.   BATON ROUGE — U.S. labor markets may be approaching full employment in certain industries and regions, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart said on Tuesday, pointing to skilled trades in places such ...

Dying Business Addendum

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

I have just returned to my work station and found this story regarding trading results at Citibank. The firm's CFO said earlier today than trading revenues in Q2 would be down 20 to 25 percent from the same quarter in the prior year. He specifically cited the low volatility environment ...

Dying Business

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

Uniformly the folks with whom I spoke with today as I plunged back into blogging following a nearly three week Sabbatical noted that I had missed very little action and volumes with clients were extremely light. So with that as a backdrop the WSJ just published a story that RBS ...

Two Year Note Result

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

Via CRT Capital' ** 2s stop at 39.2 bp vs. 38.8 bp 1 PM level for a 0.4 bp tail -- 'rare' two tails in a row -- indirects take 18.9% vs. 26.4% averge -- directs take 25.2% vs. 21.8% average -- dealers take 55.9% vs. 50% average -- cover ratio is 3.52 vs. 3.44 average -- ...

Swap Spreads

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

I spoke with a swap trader who said that spreads in that sector are pretty much unchanged today and have been that way for most of the last several weeks. He noted that there is some movement around corporate deal pricings and when a big block of Treasuries leaves the ...

Two Year Note Auction

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

The Treasury will auction $31 billion 2 year notes at 100PM . This is the smallest auction since July 2008. Traders anticipate that investors will accord the issue an enthusiastic reception. There are several factors motivating the optimism. Front end rates in the Eurozone are low and expectations are high ...

Corporate Spreads

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

I spoke with one of my regular sources in corporate bond land regarding the context of that market in my absence. He reports that A rated paper is probably a basis point tighter than it was three weeks ago and paper containing B ratings is probably 2 basis points to ...

Draghi Headlines (About 30 minutes old)

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

*DRAGHI SAYS CONFIDENT ECB CAN DELIVER ON INFLATION MANDATE Draghi Says EU Govts Must Think Harder About Creating Growth *DRAGHI SAYS ECB HAS THE TOOLS NEEDED TO GET INFLATION TO TARGET *NEWS: DRAGHI: ECB IS DELIVERING WITHIN ITS MANDATE *DRAGHI: ECB IS DELIVERING WITHIN ITS MANDATE