Archive for August, 2014

Corporate Purchases of Company Stock Declining

Monday, August 25th, 2014

This article should make anyone who is irrationally exuberant on equities think twice. That pace at which companies repurchase their own stock is declining and this FT story cites corporate Treasurers' concerns that prices are too high as one of the reasons. Via the FT: S&P 500 companies reduce buybacks By Michael Mackenzie ...

The Next MBS Refi Wave?

Monday, August 25th, 2014

A fully paid up subscriber sent me a batch of MBS research from the street. Bank America Merrill Lynch has an interesting research note on convexity in the MBS markets and when we might experience of homeowners en masse repaying mortgages causing fear and loathing amongst MBS investors. The research ...

Treasury Recap

Monday, August 25th, 2014

The hallmark of the Treasury market today is inactivity. CRT Capital analysts in their end of day note commented that it was the lightest volume day since January 3. One salesman friend of the blog noted that 10 year notes had traded only 54 percent of the 10 day moving ...

New Home Sales

Monday, August 25th, 2014

Via Gennadiy Goldberg at TDSecurities: New home sales notably disappointed market expectations in July, falling 2.4% to 412K from an upwardly revised 422K sales pace last month. We caution that the new home sales data is quite volatile on a monthly basis and tends to see heavy subsequent revisions, with net ...

Treasury Market Update

Monday, August 25th, 2014

The Treasury market is still a very quiet place with salesman and traders lamenting the lack of client involvement. That is a function I think of the time of year as this is a heavily trafficked vacation period. One trader noted some selling in the 5 year note and little ...

MBS

Monday, August 25th, 2014

MBS are opening in line with Treasuries. One dealer noted money manager buying of higher coupons and selling of lower coupons on Friday. Hedge funds and REITs were also buyers of 4s. Banks had interest in 15 year paper. At this juncture there is little activity to report for today.

Corporate Bonds

Monday, August 25th, 2014

Bank and finance paper is opening unchanged to 1 basis point tighter in on the run names. The IG 22 is tighter by 1 1/4 and rests at 56 1/2   /57. Issuance should be light this week before resuming full throttle next week after the holiday.

Record Wides

Monday, August 25th, 2014

The 10 year Bund/ 10 year US spread has widened to a record 144.9. Even more mind boggling is 10 year Spain/10 year US which stands at - 15.5. You can sell Spain and buy US and pick 15.5. At the close of business on the 18th (on week ago ...

Recap of Corporate Bond Issuance last Week

Monday, August 25th, 2014

Via Bloomberg: IG CREDIT: Weekly Primary Volume Falls to $6.16b, Lowest YTD 2014-08-25 11:22:43.526 GMT By Lisa Loray Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Five issuers priced $6.16b from 8 tranches the week ending Aug. 22, the lowest weekly volume YTD. The majority of last week’s volume came from BAC’s $4.5b 3-part issuance on Thursday. * Aug. volume stands at ...

What to Expect from the Euro

Monday, August 25th, 2014

Some believe that the Draghi speech on Friday was akin to the Bernanke Jackson Hole speech in August 2010 when he hinted at the QE which the Fed subsequently announced in November 2010 (at which point the market sold off significantly for about six weeks). Matin Enlund is a friend ...