Archive - Mar 11, 2009 - Story

Madoff to plead guilty (Reuters)
LIBOR creep says credit markets risk freezing on distrust of policymaking (Bloomberg)
The Atlantic stimulus rift continues to grow (FT)

Redemptions are not the only thing frozen in the world of hedge funds. Seems real-estate transactions have followed suit. Only 17 single-family houses were sold in Greenwich in February 2009 compared to 75 last year. Perhaps the main factor is the resistance of sellers to lower the asking price, which had a median decline of only 2% to $1,762,500.

Net notional purchasing of protection dropped from $131.5 billion net in the prior week to a mere $12 billion last week, with a net contract increase of only 4,615 contracts compared to 30,348 in the prior week. The rerisking in consumer services has surprisingly continued at an accelerated pace with healthcare also seeing a significant net outflow in CDS notionals. Technicals suggest the consumer services space is due for a substantial widening in spread.