| 2007 Wrap-Up
Corporate bond spreads were again mixed, with the spread on an index of junk bonds ending the week about 25 bps narrower. December 24 - Bloomberg (Jeremy R. Cooke): "U.S. state and local government borrowing will drop to about $100 million during this holiday-shortened week...after municipal-bond sales reached an all-time high during 2007... Issuance of state and local bonds due in more than 13 months reached about $428 billion for the year through last week, based on Thomson Financial data... The preliminary total is 5% more than the $408 billion record set in 2005." There were no corporate debt issues this week. December 28 - Bloomberg (Junko Fujita): "Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and 30 other issuers from Iceland to Australia drove yen-denominated bond sales in Japan to a seven-year high as they took advantage of the lowest rates in the industrialized world.
FUTURES FILE: Volatility in equity markets leads to commodity savings
As overseas equity markets were plunging on Monday due to fears about slowing worldwide economic growth, traders in the U.S. were forced to sit and watch as the nation observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day.By Tuesday morning, the anxiety about worldwide economic stability and growth had reached a boiling point. Seemingly out of nowhere, the Federal Reserve announced it was slashing the Fed Funds rate by 75 basis points to help ease concerns and to prevent a more substantial slowdown in economic growth.Initially, the decision had the opposite effect. Traders interpreted the sudden and extreme cut as a sign that things might be as bad or worse than they seemed. Only a few minutes after the open of U.S. equity trading on Tuesday, equity issues had fallen almost 4 percent.As the day continued, most of the losses were erased and markets closed down just 1 percent.
'My Favorite Dog': Dueling Rhymers
1:57 p.m. Oh my goodness, Not So Fast has just provided a link for anyone who wants to send e-cards to friends, preferably Demo, featuring Repub strategist Karl Rove -- or, as Kristin Hoope blogs: I heart Rove. 1:22 p.m. I have only two rules for commenting, O My Readers (got that from "A Clockwork Orange"), keep it civil (which you have been doing, to your credit) -- and use clever pseudonyms, if you don't want to be identified. Can't stand boring ones. You'll see that Anonymous has become Any Mouse, after consultation with me, and I'm trying to persuade ?? to become ?Mark? or better. 1:07 p.m. What? You guys have no interest in the Iraqi elections Sunday? Today's "Question of the Day" doesn't seem to be drawing much interest. (But the war over interrogation methods at Gitmo seems to be causing a stir under P.S.
Fuel prices produce gasps, fumes
BRIDGEPORT, CALIF -- . -- As Californians brace for ever-higher gasoline prices, they can glimpse what might be their future in this tiny Eastern Sierra town, where motorists pay more than $4 a gallon at the two gas stations.
The Shell station in Bridgeport, a tourist town of 850 residents during the summertime peak, is charging $4.09 a gallon for regular. The outlet posted prices above the $4 mark at least four other times this year.
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Pakistan, Iran to sign GSP pact in Tehran next week
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran may sign the Gas Sales Purchase Agreement (GSPA) in Tehran in last week of the current month on Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project, sources told Daily Times here on Thursday.
Sources said that Iran has proposed February 24 to sign GSPA on IPI gas pipeline project in Tehran after the general elections in Pakistan. Earlier, Pakistan had proposed January 25 to sign GSPA on IPI in Abu Dhabi but Tehran declined to sign it in Abu Dhabi. Tehran told Pakistan that it wanted to sign agreement in Tehran with the new Pakistani elected government.
Sources said that draft of GSPA on IPI is ready to be signed by both Pakistan and Iran as Pakistani law ministry has vetted the draft of the agreement. Sources added that India was playing tactics with Pakistan to delay the signing of GSPA on IPI between Pakistan and Iran.
Lennar Insolvent: Enron Redux???
Required reading for this blog post is the fully consolidated Lennar analysis on my site. That analysis was performed right before Lennar started selling off bulk assets at a sharp discount, which spawned this follow up analysis. Insolvency: a financial condition experienced by a person or business entity when their assets no longer exceed their liabilities, commonly referred to as 'balance-sheet' insolvency I am now delivering on the long ago promise to make public the granular calculations of my opinion on Lennar's (the nation's largest home builder) recent property sales to raise cash. I looked at the date the models was completed by the analysts, and yes, it has been over a month. Well, here it is. It has not been proofread yet, so forgive any typos. To begin with, I alleged Lennar was near insolvent over a month ago.
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