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Friday, April 17, 2009

Fixed Income Recap


Treasuries
Treasuries sold off solidly all day. The two-year finished the day down 3/32, and the ten-year was lower by 37/64. The benchmark curve was 2 basis points steeper on the day, and currently sits at +193 basis points. A basis point represents .01%.

The market was disappointed with the Fed’s TIPS purchase today, evidenced by their terrible performance. The benchmark ten-year Treasury inflation-linked bond was down 1.04% in late afternoon trading. The Fed bid to buy $15.6 billion and was only filled on $1.5 billion by market sellers. That’s a success rate of less than 10%, compared to their average during this latest buying campaign of around 20%-25%. This was the main contributor to the price action today.

Fed MBS Purchases
The Fed purchased $21.75 billion in agency MBS in the past week. This brings the current total to $355.1 billion with a weekly average of $23.7 billion. The announcement came in line with expectations and MBS finished the day essentially unchanged on a spread basis.

Have a great evening.

Cliff J. Reynolds Jr., Junior Analyst

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