Credit Bubble Bulletin, by Doug NolandThe Dow rallied 1.3% and the S&P500 1.1%. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical index gained 1.9% (up 5.3% y-t-d), and the Transports added 1.0% (up 5.9% y-t-d). The Morgan Stanley Consumer index gained 1.3%, while the Utilities were about unchanged. The broader market rallied. The small cap Russell 2000 gained 1.2% and the S&P400 Mid-cap index 1.1%. The NASDAQ100 increased 1.1%, and the Morgan Stanley High Tech index added 0.8%. The Semiconductors jumped 3.0%. The Street.com Internet Index dipped 0.1%, while the NASDAQ Telecommunications index rose 2.0%. The Biotechs declined 1.3%. The Broker/Dealers gained 1.2%, and the Banks added 0.2%. With bullion gaining $7.80, the HUI gold index rallied 1.5%. Two-year government yields jumped 13 bps to 4.67%. Five-year yields rose 11 bps to 4.55%, and 10-year Treasury yields gained 9 bps to 4.59%. Long-bond yields gained 8 bps to 4.72%. The 2yr/10yr spread ended the week inverted 8 bps. The implied yield on 3-month December ’07 Eurodollars jumped 12.5 bps to 4.92%. Benchmark Fannie Mae MBS yields rose 10 bps to 5.74%, this week slightly underperforming Treasuries. The spread on Fannie’s 5 1/4% 2016 note was little changed at 38, and the spread on Freddie’s 5 1/2% 2016 note was about one wider to 38. The 10-year dollar swap spread declined 2.5 to 54.0. Corporate bond spreads were volatile and mixed, with junk spreads widening another 15 bps this week. Investment grade issuers included CIT Group $2.5 billion, Eli Lilly $2.5 billion, Bank of America $2.0 billion, Citigroup $1.75 billion, Federated $1.6 billion, Istar Financial $1.05 billion, HSBC $1.0 billion, PG&E $700 million, Intuit $500 million, Praxair $325 million, Bre Properties $300 million, Reinsurance Group $300 million, Hospitality Properties $300 million, Lincoln National $750 million, Pacificorp $600 million, Georgia Power $250 million, and FBL Financial $100 million. Junk issuers included NSG Holdings $500 million, Plains Exploration $500 million, Pioneer Natural Resource $500 million, and General Nutrition $400 million. Convert issues included Cypress Semiconductor $600 million, Developers Diversified $600 million, West Pharmaceutical Services $150 million, Private Bancorp $100 million, and Barnes Group $100 million. International issuers included BBVA $3.0 billion, Depfa Bank $1.25 billion, BP Capital $500 million, Jamaica $350 million and Banco Brades $200 million. March 9 – Bloomberg (Kabir Chibber and Cecile Gutscher): "OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest producer of natural gas, raised $2 billion of loans at its cheapest-ever rate, helping compensate for rising borrowing costs in the bond market." Japanese 10-year "JGB" yields dropped 6 bps this week to 1.605%. The Nikkei 225 dipped 0.3% (down 0.4% y-t-d). German 10-year bund yields rose 2 bps to 3.955%. Emerging markets were mostly higher, with debt markets continuing to demonstrate notable resilience. Brazil’s benchmark dollar bond yields fell 7 bps this week to 5.81%. Brazil’s Bovespa equities index surged 4.2% (down 0.8% y-t-d). The Mexican Bolsa gained 3.0% (up 2.5% y-t-d). Mexico’s 10-year $ yields dipped one bp to 5.56%. Russia’s 10-year Eurodollar yields were unchanged at 6.69%. India’s Sensex equities index was little changed on the week (down 6.5% y-t-d). China’s Shanghai Composite index rallied 3.8%, increasing 2007 gains to 9.8%. March 9 – Bloomberg (Darren Boey): "Withdrawals from emerging-market equity funds were a record $8.9 billion last week during a global stock market selloff, according to figures from Emerging Portfolio Fund Research Inc." March 8 – Financial Times (Chris Hughes): "Global stock issuance surged last month, pushing activity in the equity capital markets this year to record levels before the sell-off. Global share issuance rose 64 per cent year on year to $69.1bn, a record for February, including $17bn of initial public offerings, also a record for the month. The dramatic recovery from a relatively soft January for equity capital market activity has put total share issuance this year at $109bn, 11 per cent higher than the record first two months of 2000…." Freddie Mac posted 30-year fixed mortgage rates dipped 2 bps last week to an 11-week low 6.14% (down 23 bps y-o-y). Fifteen-year fixed mortgage rates fell 6 bps to 5.86% (down 14 bps y-o-y). And one-year adjustable rates declined 2 bps to 5.47% (up 2 bps y-o-y). The Mortgage Bankers Association Purchase Applications Index added 1.0% this week. Purchase Applications were up 1.4% from one year ago, with dollar volume rising 5.3%. Refi applications jumped 15% to an 11-week high. The average new Purchase mortgage jumped to a record $243,100 (up 3.8% y-o-y), and the average ARM rose to a record $401,800 (up 15.4% y-o-y). Bank Credit surged $33.3 billion (week of 2/28) to a record $8.410 TN. Bank Credit has expanded at a 7.9% annualized rate y-t-d (9 wks), with a one-year gain of $750 billion, or 9.8%. For the week, Securities Credit jumped $20.1 billion. Loans & Leases expanded $13.1 billion to a record $6.167 TN. Commercial & Industrial (C&I) Loans expanded 11.4% over the past year. For the week, C&I loans jumped $10.5 billion, while Real Estate loans declined $3.5 billion. Year-to-date, C&I loans have expanded at an 11.4% rate and Real Estate loans at a 7.6% pace. Bank Real Estate loans expanded 14.2% over the past year. For the week, Consumer loans dropped $6.8 billion, while Securities loans gained $11.2 billion. Other loans added $1.8 billion. On the liability side, (previous M3) Large Time Deposits increased $3.3 billion. M2 (narrow) "money" jumped $34.2 billion to a record $7.145 TN (week of 2/26). Narrow "money" expanded $383 billion, or 5.7%, over the past year. M2 has expanded at an 8.2% pace during the past 20 weeks. For the week, Currency increased $1.6 billion, while Demand & Checkable Deposits declined $5.5 billion. Savings Deposits surged $33 billion, and Small Denominated Deposits added $1.1 billion. Retail Money Fund assets increased $3.5 billion. Total Money Market Fund Assets (from Invest. Co. Inst.) increased $33.6 billion last week to a record $2.431 TN. Money Fund Assets have increased $170 billion over the past 20 weeks (19.5% annualized) and $375 billion over 52 weeks, or 18.2%. Total Commercial Paper declined $17.9 billion last week to $1.993 TN, with a y-t-d gain of $18.6 billion (4.9% annualized). CP has increased $99 billion (13.8% annualized) over 20 weeks, and $297 billion, or 17.5%, over the past 52 weeks. Asset-backed Securities (ABS) issuance rose modestly this week to $12 billion. Year-to-date total ABS issuance of $126 billion (tallied by JPMorgan) is running behind the $138 billion from comparable 2006. Home Equity ABS issuance is struggling, with y-t-d sales of $64 billion about a third behind last year’s $93 billion. Yet year-to-date US CDO issuance of $64 billion is running 50% ahead of comparable 2006. Fed Foreign Holdings of Treasury, Agency Debt jumped $15.0 billion last week (ended 3/7) to a record $1.848 Trillion, with a y-t-d gain of $96.3 billion (28.6% annualized). "Custody" holdings have expanded at a 23% rate over 20 weeks and 16.1% y-o-y ($257bn). Federal Reserve Credit last week declined $1.7 billion to $851.8 billion. Fed Credit was up $36.4 billion y-o-y, or 4.5%. International reserve assets (excluding gold) - as accumulated by Bloomberg’s Alex Tanzi – were up $834 billion y-o-y (19.8%) to a record $5.038 TN. March 9 – Bloomberg (Zhao Yidi and Li Yanping): "China’s government plans to set up an agency to help manage its $1.07 trillion of currency reserves and indicated the fund will invest in companies in a similar manner to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte. The agency will ‘maximize the profits’ of the reserves, Finance Minister Jin Renqing said today." |