Karl Menzer's (karlmenzer) Blog

Monday, June 30, 2008 Bonds have remained flat for most of the day. Currently the FNMA 5.5% 60 yr is down 6 Bp for the day and has been between -6 and +12. With investors  looking at a $162 billion war spending bill marked for a volatile region, oil is where the eyes are today With oil passing a ...

Friday, June 27, 2008 After yesterdays massive selloff of stocks yesterday, it looks as if the bond market is trying it's best to turn positive. A good sign of just how hard this is proving to be, although the DOW dropped over 300 points, the bond struggled to gain little more than 25 Bp. The bon...

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 As what is becoming the norm with the market and rates, bonds came off their high of the day and dropped into negative territory before bouncing back to being up 25 Bp for the day. Making the market move erratically today is a mixture of housing numbers, consumer confidence...

Friday, June 20, 2008 We started the day off well enough and even had the option of a re-price for the better. With Oil down from its high of the day, and all the major Indices also down, it would be safe to say today is a float day.... But it is not. The Bond is still having a hard time recaptur...

Thursday, June 19, 2008 It's another mattress day today as the bond, oil, and the Dow are all struggling to be positive.  Making market news today are Mays Leading Economic Indicators, Jobless claims, and the Fed Philly Survey.  The LEI, which measures 10 different aspect of the economy and tryin...

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 We are having a modest rally on the bond today. Currently we are up 64 Bp for the day, and 40 Bp since pricing came out at 10 am, giving us 2 re-prices for the better.  The main driving force today is more on worries from the earnings reports and the effect they are havin...

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Here is something that you don't hear every day. Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shimali stated today that oil prices are too high and that they should be around $100 per barrel.  With this coming from the 4th largest oil producing member OPEC, oil has retreated below $...

Friday, June 13, 2008 I true Friday the 13th form, what can go wrong will.  Although numbers came in as expected today, and the bond started off on a positive, it turned negative within the last hour. Bonds had been up as much as 40 Bp they have turned downward and as the normal lately, we are se...

Thursday, June 12, 2008 This morning the bond found its level of support..... and then shot lower.  With May retail sales beating everyone's expectations by .5%, it seemed that the much worse than expected unemployment numbers, which came in at 384,000, took a back seat. Bonds are still tracking ...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 What a fun day yesterday. Since I was unable to e-mail and post this yesterday, here is a brief synopsis. 3 (count them) reprises for the worse, and a 118 Bp drop on the bond.  We are still in a lock mode for the time being.  That means that if you get a signed contract, ...