CREDIT MARKETS

Treasuries:
Treasury prices declined Thursday, sending yields higher for a fourth consecutive session, as the government completed the last of the week’s three record-sized note auctions. Growing government debt issuance is in sharp focus as President Barack Obama released his budget for fiscal 2010 and predicted a yawning $1.75 trillion federal deficit. In the first sale of 7-year notes since 1993, the Treasury Department sold $22 billion to yield 2.748 percent. Bidders offered $2.11 for every dollar available. Indirect bidders, a class of investors that includes foreign central banks, bought 38.7 percent of the notes up for bid. The return of a long-retired maturity is part of the government’s plan to increase bond issuance to finance all of the programs and stimulus enacted by the Federal Reserve and Congress in the hopes of stabilizing financial markets and helping bring the recession to an end.

First-time applications for state unemployment benefits rose 36,000 last week, reaching a seasonally adjusted 667,000, the highest since October 1982. And for the week ended Feb. 14, the number of people collecting benefits climbed to a record 5.11 million. February is, so far, the third-busiest month on record for the issuance of corporate bonds. Economic news will focus on University of Michigan and consumer of confidence.

Commentary/New Issues

Corporate:
$5.0 BLN, Chevron Corp., Aa1/AA, 3 part $1.5 BLN, 3.45%, 3/3/2012, +195bp; $2.0 BLN, 3.95%, 3/3/2014, +195bp; $1.5 BLN, 4.95%, 3/3/2019, +195bp $3.0 BLN, Abbott Labs, A1/AA, 2 part $2.0 BLN, 5.125%, 4/1/19, +220bp; $1.0 BLN, 6.00%, 4/1/39, +235bp $500 MM, Alabama Power, 6.00%, 3/01/39, A2/A, +235bp

ABS:
Nothing

Agency:
$15 BLN, FNMA, 1.75%, 3/23/11, +68bp

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