Category Archives: bonds and loans

Where are the hedge-fund losers in the credit markets? That’s what Option Armageddon is asking, via an email from a friend in the hedge-fund industry: There have been some nice fortunes made from the spread widening (Paulson, Hayman, Blue Ridge, … Continue reading →

Min Zeng, on page C2 of today’s WSJ: With oil prices above $100 a barrel and countries from China to the U.S. reporting sharp gains in consumer prices, now may be the time to buy inflation-protected securities. Big bond investors, … Continue reading →

Are you in the mood for 4,500 words on how Pimco is alleged to have illegally squeezed the Treasury market in 2005? Then run along to Bloomberg forthwith. The details of the lawsuit bore me, with the exception of the … Continue reading →

A banker makes a $10 million loan to a client at an interest rate of 10%. He then turns around and securitizes the loan, selling it to bond investors at an interest rate of 10%. Does that sound like a … Continue reading →

I’m not a big fan of the WSJ’s front-page story about trouble in the auction-rate securities market today. It’s long – over 2,000 words – which means that most readers won’t make it all the way past the jump to … Continue reading →

Robert Cookson has got his hands on a research note from UBS’s Geraud Charpin. The gist is simple: debt is cheap, and it’s getting cheaper: We are in value territory. The iTraxx index is close to 110bp when its fair … Continue reading →

Sam Jones has a good report on the CLO situation over at Alphaville. It’s bad: "80 is the new 90," he says, in terms of loan prices – which is bringing the triple-A tranches of market-value CLOs down into liquidation … Continue reading →

Should we be worried about collateralized loan obligations liquidating, or rather collateralized debt obligations? Alphaville has a list of liquidating CDOs which looks pretty scary to me, not that I know anything about them other than their names. Probably inchoate … Continue reading →

The WSJ does a very good job this morning of bringing us all up to speed on the latest developments in the world of the credit crunch. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more about these "market-value CLOs," creatures … Continue reading →

If American Express is struggling with past-due loans, why shouldn’t it be struggling with performing loans too? Last year our company spent almost $1 million with American Express, an average of over $81,000.00 per month. We paid the full balance … Continue reading →

Kate Haywood has some early speculation today on the subject of Microsoft’s bond spreads. Microsoft has never had any bonds – it doesn’t even have a credit rating – but its CFO has said, in the wake of the Yahoo … Continue reading →

Yesterday, I applauded – on both sides – Merrill Lynch’s departure from the team raising money to fund Vale’s $90 billion takeover bid for Xstrata. This morning, I got my daily email from Latin Finance (highly recommended, sign up here, … Continue reading →