Archive for May, 2016

Worse Junk Than Previously

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via the FT: Fitch cuts Brazil deeper into junk territory by: Mamta Badkar Ratings agency Fitch has cut Brazil’s sovereign debt rating deeper into junk territory on Thursday. The agency downgraded ratings on Brazil’s senior unsecured foreign- and local-currency bonds to ‘BB’ from ‘BB+’ and maintained a negative outlook. The agency said: The downgrade of Brazil’s ...

Junk Bond Redemptions

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Biggest Junk-Bond ETF Jolted by Massive Redemptions Amid Rally 2016-05-05 15:20:19.984 GMT By Sridhar Natarajan (Bloomberg) -- The largest exchange-traded fund that buys junk bonds may be flashing a warning that a three-month rally in the debt may be coming to an end. BlackRock Inc.’s iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF has seen 27.8 million ...

Interesting Musings on Negative Rates

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via the FT: yesterday by: Robin Wigglesworth, US markets editor Almost $10tn of negative yielding government bonds are costing investors about $24bn annually, according to calculations by Fitch, posing challenges to long-term investors that rely on sovereign debt as a bedrock of their portfolios. The rating agency warned that the previously unthinkable scenario of ...

What to Watch Today

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: WHAT TO WATCH: * (All times New York) * Economic Data * 7:30am: Challenger Job Cuts y/y, April, no est. (prior 31.7%) * 8:30am: Initial Jobless Claims, April 30, est. 260k (prior 257k) * Continuing Claims, April 23, est. 2128k (prior 2130k) * 9:45am: Bloomberg Consumer Comfort, May 1 (prior 43.4) * Central Banks * 11:50am: Fed’s Bullard Speaks at ...

Credit Pipeline

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: IG CREDIT PIPELINE: TOKYO May Follow May Issuance Pattern 2016-05-05 09:28:16.69 GMT By Robert Elson (Bloomberg) -- THIS WEEK’S UPDATES * Tokyo Metropolitan Govt (TOKYO) -- na/A+ has 4 year history of May issuance; investor meetings held last month. MANDATES/MEETINGS * State Grid (CHGRID) Aa3/AA-; roadshow May 4-9 * Mubadala Development (MUBAUH) Aa2/AA; roadshow May 3-6 * Banco ...

More FX

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via Marc Chandler at Brown Brothers Harriman: Dollar Performance Turns More Nuanced The US dollar is firm, near the best levels of the week against the euro, yen, and sterling In addition to the weekly initial jobless claims, the North American session features speeches by four regional Fed Presidents Politics ...

Druckenmiller Says “Au”

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Billionaire says gold is his largest currency allocation Druckenmiller averaged annual returns of 30% for three decades Stan Druckenmiller, the billionaire investor with one of the best long-term track records in money management, said the bull market in stocks has "exhausted itself" and that gold is his largest currency ...

UK Service Sector at Lowest Level in Three Years

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Services activity gauge falls to lowest level in over 3 years Combined surveys suggest economy barely grew in April U.K. companies are feeling the strain from the upcoming European Union referendum, with a gauge of services falling to its lowest level in more than three years in April. Markit Economics ...

No Sign of Inflation Says ECB

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via the FT: an hour ago by: Mehreen Khan Inflation will not be returning towards target in the eurozone any time soon. That’s the verdict of the European Central Bank, which has issued a distinctly gloomy outlook on price pressures in the currency bloc, in its latest economic bulletin, writes Mehreen Khan. With the ...

Early FX

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via Kit Juckes at SocGen: <http://www.sgmarkets.com/r/?id=h1070f473,16dee26d,16dee26e&p1=136122&p2=3edfb087e216465086ec705e7bfea2a9> I know we had a Bank Holioyda on Mondya but the weather is so good today (and the calendar so quiet) that I'm a bit envious of the French. But either way, Spring is here - which happens at this time of year. Another thing that ...