Archive for January, 2016

Regulators Seek Greater Regulation of Treasury Market

Tuesday, January 19th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: U.S. regulators are taking a step toward increasing their oversight of Treasuries in response to complaints from both traders and government officials that the market is too opaque. The Treasury Department on Tuesday plans to ask for input on how the market has changed and what should be done so ...

Persistently Pumping Petro Prodigiously

Monday, January 18th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, shipped the most oil in seven months in November in a sign that overseas refineries were getting prepared to put plants back on line after seasonal maintenance. Saudi shipments rose to 7.72 million barrels a day, the highest since April, from 7.364 million ...

Credit Market Alert

Monday, January 18th, 2016

Via the WSJ: By Christopher Whittall Jan. 18, 2016 5:10 p.m. ET 0 COMMENTS A wave of selling has taken Europe’s corporate-bond market to levels typically seen during recessions, another indication that the turmoil in global markets could spread into the wider economy. The gap in yields, or spread, between Eurozone high-grade corporate debt and ...

Portuguese Bond Angst

Monday, January 18th, 2016

Via the FT: 2 hours ago by: Katie Martin The chorus of concern among Portuguese bond investors is growing louder. To recap, over the Christmas period, the Portuguese central bank surprised markets by imposing losses on bank bonds held by international investors, including Pimco and Blackrock, writes Thomas Hale. The bonds were originally part of ...

Bad Loan in Italy

Monday, January 18th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Italian banks dropped in Milan, leading declines in the European Stoxx 600 Banks Index, reflecting investor concerns about lenders’ levels of bad debt as the European Central Bank seeks to toughen scrutiny of the region’s non-performing loans. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, bailed out twice since 2009, slumped as ...

FX View for the Week

Monday, January 18th, 2016

An excellent (and long ) piece via Marc Chandler at Brown Brothers Harriman. Drivers for the Week Ahead - What Will It Take to Stabilize the Capital Markets?   - Two weeks into the year and most investors are nursing sizable drawdowns - The Federal Reserve did hike rates a month ago, ...

Weekend Data Preview

Friday, January 15th, 2016

Via Robert Sinche at Amherst Pierpont Securities: CHINA: Property Price data for December is likely to show more cities showing YOY price gains compared to the 21 showing higher prices in November. On Monday evening December data for Retail Sales and Industrial Production will be released, with the Bberg consensus expecting ...

Inflation Data

Friday, January 15th, 2016

Via Stephen Stanley at Amherst Pierpont Securities: The December PPI figure came in as expected.  The headline index declined by 0.2%, reflecting substantial price drops for food and especially for energy.  Wholesale gasoline prices sank by over 8% on a seasonally adjusted basis.  Meanwhile, the core PPI posted a 0.1% rise, ...

Retail Sales

Friday, January 15th, 2016

Via Millan Mulraine at TDSecurities: TD SECURITIES DATAFLASH                    US:  Core Consumer Spending Momentum Falters Headline retail sales declined for the first time since September, falling 0.1% m/m, owing to weaker gasoline sales. Core spending activity was also quite weak, falling 0.3% m/m, reflecting a sharp slowdown in underlying spending momentum. The weak spending performance ...

Industrial Production

Friday, January 15th, 2016

Via Stephen Stanley at Amherst Pierpont Securities: Industrial production slid by 0.4% in December, worse than expected.  I had actually figured that a slight increase was possible, but the surprise was entirely a function of a bad estimate on my part for utility usage.  Utility usage plunged by 7% in October ...