Archive for February, 2016

Early FX

Thursday, February 25th, 2016

Via Kit Juckes at SocGen: Yesterday afternoon's release of soft US new home sales for January (and a soft Markit services PMI) stopped the dollar's rally in its tracks somewhat, with EUR/USD crawling back over 1.10 and even GBP/USD finding a modicum of short-term stability. A USD 1.5pbl jump in oil ...

Oil Bust About to Claim Big Victims

Thursday, February 25th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: In less than a month, the U.S. oil bust could claim two of its biggest victims yet. Energy XXI Ltd. and SandRidge Energy Inc., oil and gas drillers with a combined $7.6 billion of debt, didn’t pay interest on their bonds last week. They have until the middle of next ...

Hard to Believe

Wednesday, February 24th, 2016

Bloomberg Headline: Japan's 40-Year Bond Yield Falls Below 1% For First Time

Fixed Income: JPM All In

Wednesday, February 24th, 2016

Via FT: JPMorgan brushes off rivals’ fixed-income woes by: Ben McLannahan in New York JPMorgan Chase has vowed to keep investing in its market-leading businesses trading fixed income, currencies and commodities, defying some of the doomsday scenarios outlined by competitors. FICC units across Wall Street have been squeezed in recent years by tougher regulation, ...

Auction Preview(s)

Monday, February 22nd, 2016

Via Gennadiy Goldberg at TDSecurities: US Rates Strategy – Treasury Auction Preview Treasury will auction $88bn this week, selling $26bn in 2s on Tuesday, as well as a smaller $34bn in 5s on Wednesday and $28bn in 7s on Thursday. With $60.4bn maturing at month-end, net cash raised at the sale will ...

Overnight Data Preview

Monday, February 22nd, 2016

Via Robert Sinche at Amherst Pierpont Securities: HONG KONG: The Bberg consensus expects the January CPI held at 2.5% YOY, relatively high by global standards, even thought the HKD has tracked the USD higher over the last year, while the Unemployment Rate is expected to hold at 3.3%. GERMANY: The Bberg consensus ...

Treasury Official on G 20 Meeting

Monday, February 22nd, 2016

Via WSJ: By IAN TALLEY Feb. 22, 2016 2:59 p.m. ET 0 COMMENTS WASHINGTON—Global financial leaders likely will reiterate previous currency policy commitments, a senior U.S. Treasury official signaled Monday, despite concerns that lackluster growth around the world may tempt some countries to use devalued currencies to juice exports. A senior U.S. official, speaking ahead of ...

Goldman Energy Junk Exposure

Monday, February 22nd, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said about 40 percent of its oil and gas loans and lending commitments are to junk-rated firms. The figure, which counts both loans made and future promises to lend, accounted for $4.2 billion of a total $10.6 billion as of the end of December, the New ...

FX

Monday, February 22nd, 2016

Via Marc Chandler at Brown Brothers Harriman: Drivers for the Week Ahead - In the foreign exchange market, sterling's slide is the main feature - The flash eurozone PMI disappointed expectations - The main driver of the investment climate is not so much the incremental economic data as the capital markets themselves - ...

Repo Pool

Sunday, February 21st, 2016

The WSJ reports on the internal repo pool of foreign central bank money held by the Open Market Desk. When I worked at the Open Market Desk circa 1980 the pool was about $1 billion. Via the WSJ: By KATY BURNE Feb. 21, 2016 1:58 p.m. ET 0 COMMENTS Foreign central banks have sharply increased ...