In my life, I have been a mortgage bond manager, and a corporate bond manager. I have enough overall experience that I have played in most bond and loan categories, including municipal bonds. Municipal bonds are one place where the competition level is low, and additional knowledge can pay off. This is particularly true in an era where municipal bond insurance is less prevalent, and as such credit analysis has more value. This...
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Stocks, bonds and currencies in the emerging markets witnessed a sharp sell-off on Tuesday fuelled by concerns over US Federal Reserve slowing in its program of acquiring bond to suppress the long-term interest rates. Emerging markets have been gaining due to the ultra-loose global monetary policy followed by Fed to pump $12 trillion of liquidity in the financial markets globally, since the financial crisis. However, the slow growth in China and concerns that Fed...
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After a rough 2012 for many Quant funds its deja vu. The recent sell off in treasuries dipped bond prices to new lows and brought major losses for the quant funds who trade fixed income futures. Bond traders were punished as Fed hinted on stemming its quantitative easing program. A 10-year bond yields increased from 1.6 percent to 2.25 percent on May 29, as a number of hedge funds incurred losses. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)’s...
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The composite valuation indicator (CVI) is a measure that Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) uses to measure the value of MSCI European equities relative to bonds and inflation. Morgan Stanley analysts use a variety of weighted indices on real and nominal bond yields, dividend yields, and some equity valuation indicators like Price (P)/Earnings (E) and P/Book Value (BV) to construct the CVI. The model indicates buy and sell signals and are based on z-scores for these...
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Howard Marks , Oaktree Capital, explains why high-yield bonds are less vulnerable to rising interest rates than other classes of fixed income, with Oscar Schafer, Rivulet Capital chairman. Howard Marks, chairman of Oaktree Capital, explains why now is not the time to be “either aggressive or highly defensive” as a lot of uncertainties remain over a tapering of central bank action. Howard Marks CNBC Interview and computer transcript below H/T Value Investing World bonds a...
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Amid all the bad news concerning tax issues there seems to be a little moment of joy for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). The iPhone maker’s recent bond issuance helped the company to save more than $724 million in interest on the debt it incurred, says a report from Bloomberg by Mary Childs. It’s debatable whether the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was lucky with the issuance or it was just sheer smartness on the part of management...
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China’s banking system is the largest in the world as measured by profits –according to a new report from Ronit Ghose, an analyst at Citigroup. Chinese total bank landing was $1 trillion in the first quarter. This includes the shadow banking system which made up half of that number. In some respects, that means China’s shadow banking system is the size of the ‘regular’ banks. Ronit forecasts $300 billion of net profits in 2013-14 or c30%...
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Japan’s public pension fund, Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), is reportedly considering the idea of shifting more of its investments into domestic stocks, according to Reuters. GPIF Would Be Forced To Invest In Bonds Chikafumi Hodo of Reuters feels without such a shift to domestic equities, GPIF would be forced to park more of its investments in Japanese government bonds. The 10-year Japanese government bond yields tapered off, after posting about 1 percent rise,...
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Will stocks fall if bond yields rise? Pimco’s Bill Gross offers insight. “Going forward, there is going to be a mild positive correlation — if bond prices go down, stock prices will go down as well,” he explains. Note though… that Bill Gross does not always say as he does. Bill Gross CNBC Interview Video and Computer Transcript all good questions you have thrown out there. we call the top story the lead...
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Treasuries fell to 13 month lows on fears of tapering by the Fed. Bonds, tapering and the fear factor via Goldman Sachs. See their presentation with lots of charts on Tapering here. Ben Bernanke’s recent comments have ignited concern about an earlier move to tapering of bond purchases by the Fed. This has also been associated with a sharp sell-off in bonds with US 10-year treasuries up 50bp in a month. While there are...
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Post Market News Stocks that were active in U.S. trading on Wednesday include Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NYSE:SFD), The Wet Seal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WTSL), Stewart Enterprises Inc. (NASDAQ:STEI), Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE:TSL) and KKR & Co. LP (NYSE:KKR). Market Levels U.S.: Dow Jones: 15,323.61 (-0.56%), S&P 500: 1,648.47 (-0.70%), Nasdaq: 3,467.52 (-0.61%) World Markets: Shanghai: 2,324.02 (+0.12%), Nikkei 225: 14,326.46 (+0.10%), Hang Seng Index: 22,554.93 (-1.61%), TSEC: 8,337.90 (+0.91%), FTSE 100: 6,627.17 (-1.99%), EURO STOXX 50: 2,786.54 (-1.74%), BSE Sensex: 20,147.64 (-0.07%) Metals: Gold: $1,391.30 (+0.90%), Silver: $22.45 (+1.17%), Platinum:...
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