A Whole Lot Of Nothing, So Far
Credit indices are virtually unchanged in Europe and here. Stocks futures are virtually unchanged in Europe and here. I still see no evidence that the ECB has redeemed its old bonds and received new bonds (the amount outstanding on old bonds should show up as being reduced once the exchange is done – it is […]
Weird Feedback Today…
There is usually a pattern to the responses. To make a long story short – today was weird in that the responses I got would have made me think the market was up 1% instead of ranging from fractionally down, to back to Thursday’s closing prices and well off yesterday’s highs. Not sure what, […]
Chancellor Palpatine Is Actually Darth Sidious
Sorry for giving away the ending to anyone who has not yet seen Star Wars but more and more I can’t help but see Papademos playing that same role. The Greeks need someone who is truly representing them. Who is turning over every stone to figure out an alternative. He has debt on one side […]
(BN) EU Proposes Hungary Aid Freeze, Prompting Spending-Cut Plan
I missed this earlier. When will one of these countries seriously seek alternatives to playing this game. How many fingers does the ECB have? I only ask because they are trying to plug so many dykes you have to wonder how many fingers they really have? And just how many middle fingers do they have, […]
(ANA) Greek govt to safeguard small bond investors
Small investors are fine. Central Banks are fine. Will individual investors have to swap their bonds to the same ones the central banks hold to avoid CAC, or will the CAC rule be written to exempt them from CACS, or are they just making this up as they go along? It is all very confusing. […]
If 4 Letters Don’t Work, Lets Try 5
I missed in all the excitement that the ESBPF had been officially created. This is the European Sovereign Bond Protection Facility. http://www.esbpf.eu/
Looking For An Upside Surprise To The Home Sales Number
I’m looking for an upside surprise to the home sales number. According to Bloomberg the average estimate is for 4.66M. That seems low. It is barely above last year’s number, and since half the northeast was locked indoors for part of the month, I find it hard to believe that the seasonal adjustment won’t have a much bigger impact. […]
The Junk ETF Phenomenon
This is a graph of the shares outstanding of the JNK ETF. The HYG ETF chart looks similar. There is a long term shift into fixed income ETF’s. As I have written about before, it is the easiest time ever to allocate assets to fixed income, and shift assets within the fixed income allocation. The ETF’s have played a large […]
A Breather And Some Time To Sort Through Some Details…
Details continue to leak out, making it somewhat easier to analyze what is coming out of Europe. It looks like the ECB and National Central Banks will get preferential treatment. The ECB has already allegedly exchanged their bonds for new ones, though I don’t see a reduction in notional of existing bonds – which could […]
It Is Probably Obvious, But Greek Privatizations Are Dead
Who other than a country would buy anything from the Greek government that couldn’t be moved off-shore. Remember they were going to privatize some assets. The number of bidders is dropping as who would possibly want to take the risk that they change the laws retroactively.