Archive - May 28, 2009

Spreads were tighter in the US as all the indices improved (as IG saw its tightest close in Series 12). Indices generally outperformed intrinsics (as it seemed index flows were getting ahead of themselves into the close) with skews widening in general as IG's skew decompressed as the index beat intrinsics, HVOL outperformed but widened the skew, ExHVOL outperformed pushing the skew wider, XO's skew increased as the index outperformed, and HY outperformed but narrowed the skew.

As recently many questions have arisen as to the involvement of the Federal Reserve in bond (and other) markets, I present the data provided by the Federal Reserve of New York regarding the Fed's Open Market Operations. The charts below summarize the individual (single-serving if you will) and cumulative purchases across both Treasuries and Agencies. In a nutshell, for 2009, the Fed has purchased $131 billion Treasuries and $63.8 billion Agencies.

As recently many questions have arisen as to the involvement of the Federal Reserve in bond (and other) markets, I present the data provided by the Federal Reserve of New York regarding the Fed's Open Market Operations. The charts below summarize the individual (single-serving if you will) and cumulative purchases across both Treasuries and Agencies. In a nutshell, for 2009, the Fed has purchased $131 billion Treasuries and $63.8 billion Agencies.

As recently many questions have arisen as to the involvement of the Federal Reserve in bond (and other) markets, I present the data provided by the Federal Reserve of New York regarding the Fed's Open Market Operations. The charts below summarize the individual (single-serving if you will) and cumulative purchases across both Treasuries and Agencies. In a nutshell, for 2009, the Fed has purchased $131 billion Treasuries and $63.8 billion Agencies.

For all with access to Bloomberg, run LTRA... For those who don't have bberg handy, here is the screen capture of Bloomberg's perfidious sense of humor.

Judging by the market, Bloomberg is actively developing its next critical "cointoss" function: [PPT] GO.

For all with access to Bloomberg, run LTRA... For those who don't have bberg handy, here is the screen capture of Bloomberg's perfidious sense of humor.

Judging by the market, Bloomberg is actively developing its next critical "cointoss" function: [PPT] GO.

For all with access to Bloomberg, run LTRA... For those who don't have bberg handy, here is the screen capture of Bloomberg's perfidious sense of humor.

Judging by the market, Bloomberg is actively developing its next critical "cointoss" function: [PPT] GO.

Somebody is really getting reamed by the SPY - IWM hedging dislocation today.

Somebody is really getting reamed by the SPY - IWM hedging dislocation today.

Somebody is really getting reamed by the SPY - IWM hedging dislocation today.

Zero Hedge pointed out how abysmally hilarious CNBC's repetitive conclusion that GM's bankruptcy is a done deal, when you only have 20-35% of the bondholders on deck. True, Rattner will likely make some urgent phone calls, and attempt a gut (and wallet) wrenching appeal to the holdouts, referring to such flights of fancy as the holdout's mother, family, the IRS, the SEC, etc.

Equities loving, loving that mortgages jumped by 50 bps over past two days. And the pounding is not ending.

Equities loving, loving that mortgages jumped by 50 bps over past two days. And the pounding is not ending.

Equities loving, loving that mortgages jumped by 50 bps over past two days. And the pounding is not ending.

As if on Zero Hedge's cue BankUnited CEO John Kanas appeared on CNBC today to talk about how wonderfully things are going for the new-lease-on-life firm. The regulators were great! They opened for "business as usual" the next day! No. The rumors that the supply of free toasters has diminished are totally false.

You will be pleased to know that Zero Hedge has managed to dig up quite a bit of interesting history on BankUnited. For instance, we have discovered that BankUnited's power animal is the Black Carpenter Ant (indigenous to Florida and prone to destroy homes).