The Dow declined 1.4% and the S&P500 1.1%. The Transports declined 1.0%, and the Morgan Stanley Cyclical index slipped 0.7%. The Utilities gained 0.9%. The Morgan Stanley Consumer index was hit for 1.2%. The small cap Russell 2000 declined 0.8%, and the S&P400 Mid-Cap index fell 1.1%. The NASDAQ100 dipped 0.1%, and the Morgan Stanley High Tech index lost 0.7%. The Semiconductors dipped 0.6%. The Street.com Internet Index declined 0.9%, while the NASDAQ Telecommunications index gained 0.8%. The Biotechs added 0.3%. Financial stocks were under pressure. The Broker/Dealers dropped 3.1%, and the Banks declined 2.3%. Although bullion gained almost $2, the HUI Gold index declined 0.4%.
Two-year government yields dropped 8 bps to 4.59%. Five-year yields declined 6 bps to 4.47%, and 10-year Treasury yields fell 4 bps to 4.55%. Long-bond yields slipped two bps to 4.70%. The 2yr/10yr spread ended the week inverted only 4 bps. The implied yield on 3-month December ’07 Eurodollars dropped 6 bps to 4.86%. Benchmark Fannie Mae MBS yields fell 6 bps to 5.68%, this week outperforming Treasuries. The spread on Fannie’s 5 1/4% 2016 note widened two to 40, and the spread on Freddie’s 5 1/2% 2016 note widened one to 39. The 10-year dollar swap spread was unchanged at 54.0. Corporate bond spreads were again volatile, with junk spreads ending the week a few bps wider.
Investment grade issuers included TXU $1.8 billion, AIG $900 million, CIT Group $750 million, Eaton Corp $500 million, Honeywell $1.0 billion, Cigna $750 million, Commonwealth Edison $625 million, McDonalds $400 million, Coventry Health $400 million, XTRA Finance $400 million, White Mountains $400 million, Southern Natural Gas $500 million, and Stanley Works $200 million.
March 14 – Bloomberg (Kim-Mai Cutler): "Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. sold $6 billion of bonds today in the second-biggest junk bond offering ever to finance a leveraged buyout, according to…Bloomberg. The sale is second only to the $8.5 billion in junk bonds raised by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for its $31.3 billion takeover of RJR Nabisco Inc. in 1989."
Junk issuers included Freeport-McMoran $6.0 billion, TRW Automotive $1.1 billion, Hawker Beechcraft $1.1 billion, Stone Container $675 million, PPL Capital Funding $500 million, Belden CDT $350 million, General Cable $325 million, US AGBank $225 million, Centene $175 million, and Asbury Auto Group $150 million.
Convert issues included Macerich $800 million, Alpharma $300 million, National Financial $230 million, SPS $150 million, Asbury Auto Group $100 million and Conceptus $86 million.
International issuers included Canadian Natural Resources $2.2 billion and TNK-BP $1.3 billion.
Japanese 10-year "JGB" yields declined 3 bps this week to 1.575%. The Nikkei 225 fell 2.4% (down 2.8% y-t-d). German 10-year bund yields fell 5 bps to 3.90%. Emerging debt markets again held their own, while equities markets were under some pressure. Brazil’s benchmark dollar bond yields dipped one bp this week to 5.81%. Brazil’s Bovespa equities index dropped 3.2% (down 3.9% y-t-d). The Mexican Bolsa slipped 0.8% (up 1.7% y-t-d). Mexico’s 10-year $ yields fell 6 bps to 5.48%. Russia’s 10-year Eurodollar yields declined 2 bps to 6.68%. India’s Sensex equities index dropped 3.5% for the week (down 9.8% y-t-d). China’s Shanghai Composite index dipped 0.3%, reducing 2007 gains to 9.5%.
Freddie Mac posted 30-year fixed mortgage rates were unchanged last week at 6.14% (down 20 bps y-o-y). Fifteen-year fixed rates added two bps to 5.88% (down 10 bps y-o-y). And one-year adjustable rates fell 5 bps to a 10-week low 5.42% (up 5 bps y-o-y). The Mortgage Bankers Association Purchase Applications Index gained 2.2% this week. Purchase Applications were up 2.8% from one year ago, with dollar volume up a notable 9.6%. Refi applications rose 3.5% to the strongest level since September 2005. The average new Purchase mortgage jumped to a record $248,000 (up 5.3% y-o-y), and the average ARM rose to a record $409,400 (up 18.5% y-o-y).
Bank Credit jumped $23.9 billion (week of 3/7) to a record $8.437 TN. Bank Credit has expanded at a 9.0% annualized rate y-t-d (10 wks), with a one-year gain of $788 billion, or 10.3%. For the week, Securities Credit increased $16.5 billion. Loans & Leases rose $7.4 billion to a record $6.174 TN. Commercial & Industrial (C&I) Loans expanded 12.1% over the past year. For the week, C&I loans declined $3.4 billion, while Real Estate loans gained $5.9 billion. Year-to-date, C&I loans have expanded at a 6.6% rate and Real Estate loans at a 8.4% pace. Bank Real Estate loans expanded 14.0% over the past year. For the week, Consumer loans added $2.1 billion, and Securities loans increased $5.0 billion. Other loans declined $2.3 billion. On the liability side, (previous M3) Large Time Deposits jumped $18.4 billion.
M2 (narrow) "money" fell $16.8bn to a record $7.128 TN (week of 3/5). Narrow "money" has expanded $84bn y-t-d, or 6.2% annualized, and $374bn, or 5.5%, over the past year. For the week, Currency dipped $0.1 billion, while Demand & Checkable Deposits jumped $31.6bn. Savings Deposits dropped $50.1bn, while Small Denominated Deposits added $0.1bn. Retail Money Fund assets increased $1.5bn.
Total Money Market Fund Assets (from Invest. Co. Inst) declined $8.0 billion last week to $2.431 TN. Money Fund Assets have increased $169 billion over the past 20 weeks (19.5% annualized) and $383 billion over 52 weeks, or 18.8%.
Total Commercial Paper gained $2.3 billion last week to $1.995 TN, with a y-t-d gain of $18.6 billion (4.5% annualized). CP has increased $96 billion (13.1% annualized) over 20 weeks, and $285 billion, or 16.7%, over the past 52 weeks.
March 15 – Bloomberg (Shamim Adam): "Global sales of collateralized debt obligations surged 90 percent in the first two months of this year as issuers rushed to complete deals while the subprime bond market was collapsing, Morgan Stanley said. CDO sales in January and February totaled $80.8 billion, up from $42.6 billion in the same 2006 period…"
March 13 – Bloomberg (Caroline Salas and Darrell Hassler): "Bond investors rattled by mounting losses in subprime U.S. mortgages say trouble is brewing in collateralized debt obligations, the same securities that fueled the boom in leveraged buyouts and cut-rate finance. Sales of CDOs, which package loans, bonds and derivatives into new securities, rose by almost half to $918 billion last year, according to…JPMorgan Chase & Co."
Fed Foreign Holdings of Treasury, Agency Debt increased $11.4bn last week (ended 3/14) to a record $1.860 TN, with a y-t-d gain of $96.3bn (26% annualized). "Custody" holdings have expanded at a 27% rate over 20 weeks and 16.6% y-o-y ($265bn). Federal Reserve Credit last week declined $164 million to $852bn. Fed Credit was up $31.5bn y-o-y, or 3.8%.
International reserve assets (excluding gold) - as accumulated by Bloomberg’s Alex Tanzi – were up $841 billion y-o-y (20%) to a record $5.048 TN.