Archive for February, 2015

Corporate Trading Volume Remains at Very High Levels

Friday, February 6th, 2015

Via Bloomberg: IG CREDIT: Trading Volume Remains at Record High Levels 2015-02-06 11:05:39.669 GMT By Robert Elson (Bloomberg) -- Secondary IG trading ended with a Trace count of $21.2b vs record high $22.8b Wednesday, $19.2b last Thursday. * Yesterday’s $21.2b was 3rd highest day in the history of the Trace Aggregates going back to Jan. 2005; second highest ...

Today’s Corporate Issuance

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

Via Bloomberg: IG CREDIT: $20.15b to Price in Highest Volume Session of 2015 2015-02-05 19:36:34.720 GMT By Lisa Loray (Bloomberg) -- $20.15b expected to price today, highest volume in a single session this year; weekly volume to $50.0b, busiest week of 2015, and YTD volume to $182.25b. * Domestics account for 62% of today’s volume, led by ...

Trade Deficit

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

Via Gennadiy Goldberg at TDSecurities: The December trade deficit came in sharply wider than expected, widening to -$46.6B from a downwardly revised -$39.8B. This brings considerable downside risks to GDP revisions, likely shaving 0.3ppts from the initial 2.6% Q4 GDP reading. The big surprise in the deficit data came in the ...

FX

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

Via Mark Chandler at Brown Brothers Harriman: Beware of Greeks Bearing Collateral - The ECB will no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral and that Greek banks can have access to the national central bank via ELA - The EU negotiations with Syriza remain tense and Greek markets have been hit - ...

What to Watch Today

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

Via Bloomberg: WHAT TO WATCH: * (All times New York) Economic Data * 7:30am: Challenger Job Cuts y/y, Jan. (prior 6.6%) * 7:30am: RBC Consumer Outlook Index, Feb. (prior 53.3) * 8:30am: Non-farm Productivity, 4Q preliminary, est. 0.1% (prior 2.3%) * Unit Labor Costs, 4Q, est. 1.2% (prior -1%) * Unit Labor Costs, 4Q, est. 1.2% (prior -1%)</li></ul> * 8:30am: ...

Record Volume Once Again in Corporate Bonds

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

Via Bloomberg: IG CREDIT: Record High Trading Volume Set for 2nd Day 2015-02-05 10:50:55.909 GMT By Robert Elson (Bloomberg) -- Trace count for secondary trading ended with a new record high of $22.8b vs previous record of $21.4b Tuesday, $20.8b last Wednesday. * First time over $22b in the history of the Trace Aggregates back to Jan. 2005 ...

Running Out of Policy Tools

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

With interest rates at zero and below the FT discusses the proposition that currencies are the only tool left in the policy quiver to stimulate growth. Via the FT: ft.com > Comment > Blogs > FT Alphaville All currency war, all the time David Keohane Always beware FX analysts declaiming “the dawn of ...

World Wallowing in Debt

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

The FT has an informative article on global debt levels. The author notes that the world is more highly leveraged now than it was  in 2007 prior to the crisis. Via the FT:   February 5, 2015 12:02 am Debt mountains spark fears of another crisis Ralph Atkins The world is awash with more debt than ...

Commerzbank on ECB and Greek Collateral

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

A fully paid up subscriber across the pond forwarded this piece from Commerzbank: Last night the ECB announced that it will remove the rating waiver for GGBs in its monetary policy operations as it “is currently not possible to assume a successful conclusion of the programme review”. This means that with ...

Negative Yields Revisited

Wednesday, February 4th, 2015

Earlier today I  posted this piece on negative yields on corporate bonds. The article detailed the story of a  four year bond issued by Nestle which traded with a yield slightly negative. The WSJ now has a story about negative yields on sovereign debt (which at least conceptually makes some ...