CREDIT MARKETS
Treasuries:
Treasury prices declined Friday, pushing yields up, as investors turned their attention to stocks and as the market seemed to endorse the government’s latest moves to shore up Bank of America and Citigroup. The U.S. government announced it was injecting $20 billion into Bank of America. The Treasury also agreed to guarantee losses on more than $400 billion in assets belonging to both Bank of America and Citigroup. Citigroup, meanwhile, unveiled a plan to reorganize its business units by separating the bank’s core lending operations from the mortgage-related assets that have been the cause of billions of dollars in write-downs and losses. Bonds also played off the CPI data that showed retail-level inflation falling 0.7% in December, marking the smallest annual growth rate — 0.1% — seen in 54 years. Also Friday, consumer sentiment unexpectedly improved in early January to a reading of 61.9 from 60.1 in late December. Markets are closed on Monday in observance of the MLK Holiday.
Municipals:
U.S. municipal borrowers sold at least $8.5 billion of fixed-rate bonds this week. The municipal market also benefited from a second week of net new investment in mutual funds after a record quarter of withdrawals. Municipal funds reported cash inflows of $737 million for the period ended Jan. 14. The past month’s gains in higher-rated tax-exempt bonds have further widened the record gulf in debt costs between AAA states such as Delaware and lower-rated borrowers such as hospitals. Benchmark tax-exempt yields rose today for the first time in five weeks; 30-year AAA general obligation bonds rose two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 5.09 percent. Market closed from MLK Holiday.
Click on chart to view larger:
Commentary/New Issues
Corporate:
Nothing
ABS:
Nothing
Agency:
Nothing
New Issues larger than $250mm. The fixed income offerings mentioned above are for informational purposes only. Toussaint Capital Partners, LLC, member NASD/SIPC, and/or its affiliates may be a participant in the offering mentioned and therefore offerings will be subject to availability.
All statistical data is sourced from Bloomberg Financial Markets