Archive for March, 2012

March 30, 2012

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Sino-Forest is for sale! Who wants to buy … er … something?

Sino-Forest Corp., the embattled timber firm facing fraud allegations is filing for court protection from creditors as it tries to find a buyer for what was once the largest publicly traded forestry firm on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

While under court protection from its creditors, Sino-Forest hopes to sell its assets to a third party. It has launched a process to consider offers. If the company is unable to find a buyer its assets will be transferred to its debtholders, Sino-Forest said in a statement.

The Canadian preferred share market had a strong day to close the quarter, with PerpetualPremiums up 14bp, FixedResets winning 20bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 12bp. Volatility was low. Volume was very light.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.26%, equivalent to 6.84% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long corporates now yield about 4.5% (maybe just a little bit over) so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (in this context, the “Seniority Spread”) is now about 230bp, a significant narrowing over two days from the 240bp reported March 28.

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.1914 % 2,399.3
FixedFloater 4.52 % 3.92 % 38,636 17.39 1 -1.4085 % 3,447.0
Floater 3.01 % 3.01 % 44,259 19.68 3 0.1914 % 2,590.6
OpRet 4.93 % 3.17 % 46,398 1.21 6 0.0129 % 2,496.9
SplitShare 5.26 % -4.59 % 88,092 0.71 4 0.2589 % 2,684.8
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.0129 % 2,283.2
Perpetual-Premium 5.45 % 2.65 % 93,138 0.78 25 0.1378 % 2,207.6
Perpetual-Discount 5.22 % 5.26 % 189,316 15.04 7 0.1148 % 2,381.8
FixedReset 5.05 % 3.16 % 193,024 2.23 68 0.2044 % 2,382.1
Deemed-Retractible 4.98 % 4.01 % 207,671 3.09 46 0.1157 % 2,295.0
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
BAM.PR.G FixedFloater -1.41 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-30
Maturity Price : 21.80
Evaluated at bid price : 21.00
Bid-YTW : 3.92 %
SLF.PR.G FixedReset 1.48 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.61
Bid-YTW : 3.70 %
BAM.PR.X FixedReset 1.65 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-30
Maturity Price : 23.04
Evaluated at bid price : 24.70
Bid-YTW : 3.66 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
ENB.PR.H FixedReset 80,667 Recent new issue.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-30
Maturity Price : 23.09
Evaluated at bid price : 25.00
Bid-YTW : 3.70 %
GWO.PR.P Deemed-Retractible 36,922 TD bought 10,000 from Scotia at 25.55.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.52
Bid-YTW : 5.23 %
RY.PR.E Deemed-Retractible 31,397 TD crossed 30,000 at 25.54.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2016-02-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.55
Bid-YTW : 4.03 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset 28,718 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.08
Bid-YTW : 3.22 %
HSE.PR.A FixedReset 27,388 Desjardins crossed 25,000 at 25.83.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-30
Maturity Price : 23.50
Evaluated at bid price : 25.83
Bid-YTW : 3.28 %
FTS.PR.E OpRet 26,603 Desjardins crossed 25,000 at 26.35.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-06-01
Maturity Price : 25.75
Evaluated at bid price : 26.32
Bid-YTW : 3.17 %
There were 16 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
GWO.PR.M Deemed-Retractible Quote: 26.00 – 26.50
Spot Rate : 0.5000
Average : 0.3200

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.00
Bid-YTW : 5.31 %

BAM.PR.G FixedFloater Quote: 21.00 – 21.50
Spot Rate : 0.5000
Average : 0.3409

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-30
Maturity Price : 21.80
Evaluated at bid price : 21.00
Bid-YTW : 3.92 %

BMO.PR.Q FixedReset Quote: 25.42 – 25.76
Spot Rate : 0.3400
Average : 0.1840

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.42
Bid-YTW : 3.16 %

BAM.PR.X FixedReset Quote: 24.70 – 25.15
Spot Rate : 0.4500
Average : 0.3083

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-30
Maturity Price : 23.04
Evaluated at bid price : 24.70
Bid-YTW : 3.66 %

PWF.PR.O Perpetual-Premium Quote: 26.20 – 26.55
Spot Rate : 0.3500
Average : 0.2339

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2018-10-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.20
Bid-YTW : 5.14 %

NA.PR.M Deemed-Retractible Quote: 26.76 – 27.12
Spot Rate : 0.3600
Average : 0.2533

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-05-15
Maturity Price : 26.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.76
Bid-YTW : 3.74 %

EMA.PR.A: S&P Assigns Outlook Negative

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Standard & Poor’s has announced:

  • We are revising our outlook on Emera Inc. to negative from stable
  • At the same time, we are affirming our ratings, including our ‘BBB+’ long-term corporate credit rating, on the company.
  • We base the outlook revision on our view of Emera’s weak cash flow strength that is not likely to improve, but could worsen.
  • This expectation reflects a meaningful capital expenditure program due to energy policies at both the federal and provincial level.
  • This will likely drive the need for numerous rate increases that we believe heightens regulatory risk in the Nova Scotia market.
  • The ratings reflect our opinion of the company’s strong business risk profile and significant financial risk profile.


The negative outlooks on both Emera and NSPI reflect our expectation of the heightened regulatory risk due to the potential upward pressure on rates due to expected development projects that the company is pursuing and the impact on cash flow. We believe it is possible that the company could suffer near-to-medium-term deterioration in its credit metrics. This will depend in part on the regulatory response to the capital projects, the timing of the projects’ capital deployment, and the capital structure management uses. We expect Emera to maintain an [funds-from-operations]-to-total debt of more than 12% and debt-to-EBITDA equal to or less than 6x. We could take a negative rating action if we expect the company to breach this target on a sustained basis or invest in assets with greater earnings variability or business risk; or if it does not continue to exhibit stable operating performance. Conversely, although we do not expect it during our two-year outlook horizon, we could take a positive rating action if the company adopts a more conservative financial policy.

EMA.PR.A was deleted from TXPR in July, 2011.

EMA.PR.A is tracked by HIMIPref™ but is relegated to the Scraps index on credit concerns.

March 29, 2012

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

The Canada budget today continued to reward paperwork and subsidize marginal industry.

Canadian Finance MinisterJim Flaherty is aiming to boost flagging job growth and investment with C$3 billion ($3 billion) over two years for research and job subsidies.

The federal budget set aside C$1.1 billion over five years to support research and development and offered another C$500 million for venture capital.

The budget also proposed extending a 15 percent mineral exploration tax credit for another year through the end of March 2013 at a cost of about C$100 million.

The penny’s gone:

Canada is scrapping the penny, ending production of the country’s smallest unit of currency this spring.

The last one-cent coin will be minted this April, ending close to 150 years of the issuance of Canadian pennies. This unit of currency was first produced in 1858 although Canadian-based minting of the coin only began in 1908.

However, the most poignant part of the budget is this:

The budget also announced that the government would conduct a study, including consultation with taxpayers, to better understand why companies choose to hire consultants on a contingency fee basis to prepare their SR&ED claims. The result of this study will determine whether any action is required.

It’s no wonder that What-Debt? and Spend-Every-Penny are confused, seeing as how neither of them has much actual work experience, so out of the kindness of my heart, I’ll explain it to them:

Companies that do actual research do not, as a rule, have Suck-Arse Departments. Sucking government arse is a highly specialized field and requires years of brown-nosing (and, usually, a few more years in Cabinet) before proficiency is acquired. Therefore, a company interested in getting government money will hire an outside consultant. Since actually getting the money is a matter of random chance, contingency fees make more sense than anything else. Thank you. That will be $200-million, please.

If they were really interested in promoting research and development, they would create more centres of excellence in academia (by which I mean science and engineering, not sociology. Also, some may associate “Centres of Excellence” with applied research, which is not what I mean – it’s perfectly fine to fund the occasional one-man band to ‘think about smart stuff’. It pays off, in the end). They would evaluate potential hires solely on merit, rather than whether they’re Canadian or not. And they’d recruit grad students on a full ride according to the same criteria. But that’s not going to happen:

R&D is a long-acknowledged driver of economic prosperity and competitiveness, and the prevalent view is that more private investment in R&D will yield significant social benefit. A key driver to the government’s overall innovation strategy is to create new knowledge and a highly skilled workforce. The budget announced that the government will continue to support advanced research at universities and other leading research institutions by providing direct support to granting councils, genomics research, international research and infrastructure investment for Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals and other not-for-profit research institutes across Canada.

Notice the word “continue”, and no new funding? See that bit about “highly skilled workforce”? That’s code for “undergraduates in sociology, political science, economics and business”, all the little talky-talky pseudo-disciplines.

Canadian Utilities, proud issuer of CU.PR.A, CU.PR.B and CU.PR.C, was confirmed at Pfd-2(high) by DBRS:

DBRS has today confirmed the ratings of the Commercial Paper, Unsecured Debentures and Cumulative Preferred Shares of Canadian Utilities Limited (CU or the Company) at R-1 (low), “A” and Pfd-2 (high), respectively, all with Stable trends. The ratings reflect the Company’s stable portfolio of regulated, low-risk utilities, strong cash flows from its diversified non-regulated operations and its strong financial profile.

The diversity of CU’s asset base provides stability to overall earnings and cash flow, with earnings split approximately 58/42 between CUI’s regulated operations and CU’s non-regulated businesses (including ATCO Gas Australia). DBRS notes that dividends flowing up from CUI has significantly declined over the past two years as CU continues to provide support to CUI during the build-out phase and to preserve the utility’s credit profile. The decline is offset by strong dividends coming from its regulated generation business and non-regulated operations and by CU’s significant cash balance compared with its modest debt and preferred obligations. CU is expected to issue more long-term debt/preferred shares to fund its equity requirement at CUI over the next two years, however, the Company’s non-consolidated debt to capital will remain below 20%.

CU Inc., proud issuer of CIU.PR.A, CUI.PR.B and CIU.PR.C, was confirmed at Pfd-2(high) by DBRS:

DBRS has today confirmed the ratings of the Unsecured Debentures & Medium-Term Notes, Cumulative Preferred Shares and Commercial Paper of CU Inc. (CUI or the Company) at A (high), Pfd-2 (high) and R-1 (low) respectively, all with Stable trends. The rating confirmations are based on CUI’s low business risk, which stems from the regulated nature of its operations supported by a reasonable regulatory environment, its strong portfolio of diversified regulated businesses and its strong and stable financial profile.

The Company’s business risk profile is viewed as strong, as all of its earnings are generated from regulated electricity and gas businesses, which operate under a reasonably stable regulatory framework. The Company is allowed to earn an adequate return on equity on a reasonable deemed equity ratio for all of its diversified regulated businesses. In addition, the decision of the Alberta Utilities Commission to approve significant credit relief measures to help support the CUI’s credit metrics during construction remains credit positive.

It was a down day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums losing 12bp, FixedResets down 8bp and DeemedRetractibles off 9bp. Volatility was fair. Volume was average. ENB issues figured prominently in the volume table, presumably due to the new issue.

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 1.0836 % 2,394.7
FixedFloater 4.46 % 3.87 % 40,208 17.53 1 0.2825 % 3,496.2
Floater 3.01 % 3.02 % 44,056 19.66 3 1.0836 % 2,585.7
OpRet 4.93 % 3.06 % 45,134 1.22 6 -0.0516 % 2,496.6
SplitShare 5.28 % -3.76 % 87,844 0.71 4 0.0199 % 2,677.9
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.0516 % 2,282.9
Perpetual-Premium 5.46 % 2.79 % 94,811 0.78 25 -0.1250 % 2,204.5
Perpetual-Discount 5.23 % 5.28 % 191,316 15.05 7 0.0953 % 2,379.1
FixedReset 5.05 % 3.20 % 193,521 2.31 68 -0.0780 % 2,377.2
Deemed-Retractible 4.98 % 4.03 % 209,709 2.85 46 -0.0874 % 2,292.3
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
GWO.PR.H Deemed-Retractible -1.84 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.00
Bid-YTW : 5.41 %
BAM.PR.X FixedReset -1.58 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-29
Maturity Price : 22.89
Evaluated at bid price : 24.30
Bid-YTW : 3.74 %
IGM.PR.B Perpetual-Premium -1.52 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2018-12-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.00
Bid-YTW : 5.13 %
SLF.PR.G FixedReset -1.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.25
Bid-YTW : 3.88 %
BNA.PR.E SplitShare -1.21 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2017-12-10
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.52
Bid-YTW : 5.33 %
BAM.PR.B Floater 2.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-29
Maturity Price : 17.57
Evaluated at bid price : 17.57
Bid-YTW : 2.98 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
ENB.PR.H FixedReset 811,465 New issue settled today. Volume and bid price not quite right, sorry!
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-29
Maturity Price : 23.06
Evaluated at bid price : 24.90
Bid-YTW : 3.72 %
ENB.PR.D FixedReset 210,684 Nesbitt crossed blocks of 150,000 and 50,000, both at 25.20.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-29
Maturity Price : 23.20
Evaluated at bid price : 25.27
Bid-YTW : 3.84 %
CM.PR.J Deemed-Retractible 202,290 Called for redemption.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2012-04-30
Maturity Price : 26.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.96
Bid-YTW : 1.77 %
ENB.PR.B FixedReset 128,520 Nesbitt crossed blocks of 75,000 at 25.20 and 30,000 at 25.25.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-29
Maturity Price : 23.23
Evaluated at bid price : 25.25
Bid-YTW : 3.87 %
RY.PR.N FixedReset 62,932 TD crossed 30,000 at 26.70; Nesbitt crossed 30,000 at 26.69.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-02-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.70
Bid-YTW : 2.90 %
ENB.PR.F FixedReset 56,700 Scotia crossed 35,000 at 25.35.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2018-06-01
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.35
Bid-YTW : 3.91 %
There were 33 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
FTS.PR.H FixedReset Quote: 25.45 – 26.00
Spot Rate : 0.5500
Average : 0.3805

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-29
Maturity Price : 23.50
Evaluated at bid price : 25.45
Bid-YTW : 3.05 %

GWO.PR.H Deemed-Retractible Quote: 24.00 – 24.49
Spot Rate : 0.4900
Average : 0.3345

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.00
Bid-YTW : 5.41 %

MFC.PR.A OpRet Quote: 25.53 – 25.84
Spot Rate : 0.3100
Average : 0.2181

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Soft Maturity
Maturity Date : 2015-12-18
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.53
Bid-YTW : 3.54 %

IAG.PR.A Deemed-Retractible Quote: 23.60 – 24.00
Spot Rate : 0.4000
Average : 0.3102

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.60
Bid-YTW : 5.36 %

BAM.PR.M Perpetual-Discount Quote: 22.45 – 22.73
Spot Rate : 0.2800
Average : 0.2047

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-29
Maturity Price : 22.15
Evaluated at bid price : 22.45
Bid-YTW : 5.30 %

FTS.PR.F Perpetual-Premium Quote: 25.02 – 25.25
Spot Rate : 0.2300
Average : 0.1677

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-29
Maturity Price : 24.49
Evaluated at bid price : 25.02
Bid-YTW : 4.92 %

ENB.PR.H Firm on Excellent Volume

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Enbridge Inc. has announced:

it has closed its previously announced public offering of cumulative redeemable preference shares, Series H (the “Series H Preferred Shares”) by a syndicate of underwriters co-led by RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital Inc. and TD Securities Inc. Enbridge issued 14 million Series H Preferred Shares for gross proceeds of $350 million. The Series H Preferred Shares will begin trading on the TSX today under the symbol ENB.PR.H. The proceeds will be used to partially fund capital projects, to reduce existing indebtedness and for other general corporate purposes.

ENB.PR.H is a FixedReset, 4.00%+212, announced March 20. It seems to have gone well, as the greenshoe was fully exercised. The issue will be tracked by HIMIPref™ and assigned to the FixedReset index.

ENB.PR.H traded 1,068,421 shares today in a range of 24.80-00 before closing at 24.98-10, 8×20. Sorry about the bid price of 24.90 reported below – my error! Vital statistics are:

ENB.PR.H FixedReset YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-29
Maturity Price : 23.06
Evaluated at bid price : 24.90
Bid-YTW : 3.72 %

SBC.PR.A Term Extension Approved

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Brompton Split Banc Corp. has announced:

At a special meeting of preferred and class A shareholders (“Shareholders”) of Brompton Split Banc Corp. (“SBC”) held today, Shareholders approved a special resolution to extend the term of SBC for up to 5 years beyond the scheduled termination date of November 30, 2012 and thereafter for successive terms of up to 5 years as determined by the SBC board of directors. The extension allows Shareholders to continue to enjoy the benefit of SBC’s portfolio of common shares of six Canadian banks (Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, The Bank of Nova Scotia and The Toronto-Dominion Bank). Canadian banks have stood out amongst their global peers as examples of stability over the long term and through the credit crisis and continue to maintain attractive dividend yields and return on equity. Shareholders will continue to have monthly and annual retraction rights except that the annual retraction date will be advanced forward from the second last business day of December to the second last business day of November commencing in 2013.

In addition to the daily liquidity provided by the TSX listings, shareholders who do not wish to continue their investment may redeem either their preferred shares or class A shares on November 30, 2012 and each extension of the term thereafter on the same terms that currently exist. SBC will announce the term of the initial extension by news release no later than October 1, 2012. Further details are available in the management information circular dated March 1, 2012.

PrefBlog previously reported the proposal to extend term.

SBC.PR.A is tracked by HIMIPref™, but is relegated to the Scraps index on both credit and volume concerns.

March 28, 2012

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Boyd Erman’s piece in the Globe today, Risk factors weaken attraction of Ontario’s bonds (in the print edition, the headline was “Budget-challenged Ontario pays the price with its bonds) does a disservice to those investors who wish to understand the bond market:

Ontario is being treated more and more like the increasingly risky borrower that it is.

As the Ontario government focuses on finding ways in Tuesday’s budget to eliminate the persistent annual deficit, the bond market is exacting a steadily bigger toll for financing the government’s growing debt.

But stand back and look at a chart of the spreads over five years and there’s no doubt the general move is to wider spreads. Ontario is simply paying more, relative to Ottawa, than in the past.

When the bull market in government bonds ends and yields start to rise, as some observers believe is already happening, what will happen to Ontario then?

He attaches the requisite Cool Chart:


Click for Big

Without saying so in so many words, Mr. Erman appears to be ascribing the entire widening of the spread to credit risk – and the world is a lot more complicated than that. There is a liquidity premium – the Canada bond market is a lot bigger than the Ontario bond market, as are issue sizes and idiosyncratic measures of tradeability and hedgeability with futures. There is also a segmentation issue: many international investors will buy only sovereigns and not even consider subnationals. I am not sure, but there may be pledging issues with the Bank of Canada – if I had more time I would check, but I’m not sure if there are any eligibility or haircut differences between Canadas and Ontarios.

And … if we just glance at the chart, we can see that the shape seems to be reasonably well correlated with corporate spreads – which widened during the crisis not so much out of credit fears, but out of liquidity issues.

How much is liquidity and how much is credit? I don’t know. You could spend your lifetime studying provincial spreads and still have to guess! But to ascribe the entire widening to credit risk is a bold and audacious analysis that is treated in the column as a matter of basic fact.

Be that as it may, Ontarios are basically steady today:

Ontario bond yields didn’t make any drastic moves the morning after Canada’s largest province released its annual budget, but there was enough activity to suggest investors were a bit surprised by the provincial government’s steps to rein in spending.

Although yields for Ontario’s 5-year and 10-year bonds haven’t moved much, there was enough of a dip in early morning trading to make observers speculate that some investors are covering their short positions. These bets were initially made because investors assumed the budget wouldn’t be bold enough to tackle the province’s massive debt load.

Back in the old days at Greydanus Boeckh, I was notorious for refusing to allow staff to install any software beyond the bare-bones system we needed – we continued to use DOS, for instance, until Windows NT came out, skipping the whole Windows Crash-dot-Incompatible mess. Staff would tell me how wonderful and cheap the software was, and I would carefully explain to them that taking the software out of the shrink-wrap was when your costs started. I believe opinion was divided as to whetherr I was just saying no to demonstrate my awesome power and be mean to them, or whether I was just an idiotic technophobe.

However, we have now reached a new level of cost calculation. I bought a new laptop on the weekend for $565 (it’s incredible how cheap these things are!) and have now spent about two hours alone and about two hours on the ‘phone with tech support just trying to get the internet connection to work. So never mind the labour cost of new software – the labour cost of tranferring programmes and data to a new machine now outweighs the cost of the machine itself!

To make things worse, the new machine would not work with the old modem, and in attempting to jam the square machine into the round modem, my ISP eliminated internet access for the old machine, which is why this report is so late Ain’t life grand! But things seem to be back to normal now – and I have a shiny new modem!

It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums gaining 5bp, FixedResets down 11bp and DeemedRetractibles losing 17bp. Volatility was quite good. Volume was below average.

PerpetualDiscounts (all seven of them!) now yield 5.33%, equivalent to 6.93% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long corporates now yield about 4.55%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (in this context, the Seniority Spread) is now about 240bp, a sharp widening from the 205bp reported March 21.

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.9012 % 2,369.0
FixedFloater 4.47 % 3.82 % 38,926 17.46 1 0.4255 % 3,486.4
Floater 3.05 % 3.05 % 45,566 19.60 3 -0.9012 % 2,557.9
OpRet 4.93 % 3.38 % 66,391 1.22 6 -0.6660 % 2,497.9
SplitShare 5.28 % 0.14 % 83,610 0.72 4 -0.2087 % 2,677.4
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.6660 % 2,284.1
Perpetual-Premium 5.45 % 3.28 % 96,294 0.81 25 0.0500 % 2,207.3
Perpetual-Discount 5.21 % 5.33 % 194,080 14.95 7 0.2779 % 2,376.8
FixedReset 5.07 % 3.14 % 193,751 2.23 67 -0.1074 % 2,379.1
Deemed-Retractible 4.97 % 4.04 % 211,396 2.85 46 -0.1694 % 2,294.3
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
FTS.PR.E OpRet -2.49 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-06-01
Maturity Price : 25.75
Evaluated at bid price : 26.24
Bid-YTW : 3.42 %
BAM.PR.B Floater -1.66 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-28
Maturity Price : 17.21
Evaluated at bid price : 17.21
Bid-YTW : 3.05 %
CM.PR.K FixedReset -1.33 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-07-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.00
Bid-YTW : 3.37 %
GWO.PR.I Deemed-Retractible -1.27 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.38
Bid-YTW : 5.38 %
IAG.PR.A Deemed-Retractible -1.26 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.60
Bid-YTW : 5.36 %
SLF.PR.B Deemed-Retractible -1.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.56
Bid-YTW : 5.59 %
SLF.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -1.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.57
Bid-YTW : 5.78 %
IGM.PR.B Perpetual-Premium 1.40 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2016-12-31
Maturity Price : 25.50
Evaluated at bid price : 26.40
Bid-YTW : 4.85 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
ENB.PR.D FixedReset 84,600 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-28
Maturity Price : 23.16
Evaluated at bid price : 25.15
Bid-YTW : 3.86 %
POW.PR.G Perpetual-Premium 75,548 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2021-04-15
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.60
Bid-YTW : 5.36 %
TD.PR.O Deemed-Retractible 74,657 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2012-04-27
Maturity Price : 25.75
Evaluated at bid price : 26.01
Bid-YTW : 1.19 %
TRP.PR.B FixedReset 70,613 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-28
Maturity Price : 23.44
Evaluated at bid price : 25.29
Bid-YTW : 2.88 %
ENB.PR.B FixedReset 70,515 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-28
Maturity Price : 23.21
Evaluated at bid price : 25.17
Bid-YTW : 3.88 %
HSE.PR.A FixedReset 62,800 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-28
Maturity Price : 23.45
Evaluated at bid price : 25.64
Bid-YTW : 3.31 %
There were 25 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
GWO.PR.M Deemed-Retractible Quote: 25.96 – 26.30
Spot Rate : 0.3400
Average : 0.2133

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.96
Bid-YTW : 5.32 %

MFC.PR.F FixedReset Quote: 24.06 – 24.49
Spot Rate : 0.4300
Average : 0.3107

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.06
Bid-YTW : 4.07 %

BNA.PR.D SplitShare Quote: 26.25 – 26.60
Spot Rate : 0.3500
Average : 0.2361

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2012-04-27
Maturity Price : 26.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.25
Bid-YTW : 0.14 %

BAM.PR.J OpRet Quote: 26.90 – 27.33
Spot Rate : 0.4300
Average : 0.3401

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-03-31
Maturity Price : 26.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.90
Bid-YTW : 3.38 %

IAG.PR.A Deemed-Retractible Quote: 23.60 – 23.90
Spot Rate : 0.3000
Average : 0.2117

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.60
Bid-YTW : 5.36 %

IFC.PR.C FixedReset Quote: 25.51 – 25.74
Spot Rate : 0.2300
Average : 0.1443

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2016-09-30
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.51
Bid-YTW : 3.71 %

CPD Reduces Distribution

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Blackrock Investments Canada has announced that the regular monthly distribution with record date March 29 and pay date April 5 will be for only $0.062 / share, compared with previous levels of $0.069 / share.

I suggest that shareholders get used to this, because an annual distribution of $0.744 and NAV of 17.16 is a Current Yield of 4.33%, which I suggest is not sustainable even in the short term, given the fund’s large holdings in high-coupon FixedResets, many of which are callable at par in the next two years.

March 27, 2012

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

US house prices continue to drop:

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities dropped at a slower pace in January, pointing to stabilization in the real estate market.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index (SPX) of property values in 20 cities fell 3.8 percent from a year earlier, matching the median forecast of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, after decreasing 4.1 percent in December, a report from the group showed today in New York. Prices were little changed in January from the prior month, the best performance since July.

But some straws in the wind suggest a bottom:

Bidding wars, absent from most parts of the U.S. residential market since its peak in 2006, are erupting from Seattle and Silicon Valley to Miami and Washington, D.C. The inventory of homes hovers close to a six-year low, while an increase in jobs and record affordability are tempting more buyers. The number of contracts to buy previously owned homes jumped 14 percent in February from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday.

There wasn’t much of interest in today’s Ontario budget. As usual, the politicians are all excited about targetting a balanced budget, and couldn’t care less about repaying today’s borrowings – nor are they interested in making a realistic projection of a business cycle and providing estimates and targets for the budget balance through the cycle.

It was a positive day for the Canadian preferred share market,with PerpetualPremiums gaining 14bp, FixedResets up 3bp and DeemedRetractibles winning 15bp. Volatility was moderate. Volume was average.

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.0192 % 2,390.6
FixedFloater 4.49 % 3.84 % 36,010 17.43 1 1.1962 % 3,471.6
Floater 3.02 % 3.01 % 45,562 19.69 3 -0.0192 % 2,581.2
OpRet 4.90 % 2.53 % 47,570 1.22 6 0.5927 % 2,514.6
SplitShare 5.27 % -4.03 % 82,531 0.72 4 0.3241 % 2,683.0
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.5927 % 2,299.4
Perpetual-Premium 5.44 % 3.34 % 97,216 0.18 25 0.1430 % 2,206.2
Perpetual-Discount 5.23 % 5.35 % 196,344 14.90 7 -0.0242 % 2,370.2
FixedReset 5.06 % 3.08 % 196,826 2.23 67 0.0304 % 2,381.6
Deemed-Retractible 4.97 % 4.02 % 218,404 2.85 46 0.1483 % 2,298.2
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
MFC.PR.F FixedReset -1.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.19
Bid-YTW : 4.00 %
CM.PR.K FixedReset 1.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-07-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.35
Bid-YTW : 2.76 %
BAM.PR.G FixedFloater 1.20 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-27
Maturity Price : 21.46
Evaluated at bid price : 21.15
Bid-YTW : 3.84 %
BNA.PR.E SplitShare 1.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2017-12-10
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.80
Bid-YTW : 5.10 %
IAG.PR.A Deemed-Retractible 1.23 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.90
Bid-YTW : 5.20 %
FTS.PR.E OpRet 3.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-06-01
Maturity Price : 25.75
Evaluated at bid price : 26.91
Bid-YTW : 1.20 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
BAM.PF.A FixedReset 167,575 Recent new issue.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-27
Maturity Price : 23.08
Evaluated at bid price : 24.96
Bid-YTW : 4.43 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset 164,463 RBC crossed 100,000 at 25.25; Desjardins crossed 40,000 at the same price.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.26
Bid-YTW : 3.24 %
POW.PR.C Perpetual-Premium 50,225 Desjardins crossed 40,000 at 25.25.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2012-04-26
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.25
Bid-YTW : -9.74 %
ENB.PR.D FixedReset 44,770 Desjardins bought two blocks of 10,000 each from National, both at 25.15.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-27
Maturity Price : 23.18
Evaluated at bid price : 25.20
Bid-YTW : 3.85 %
RY.PR.I FixedReset 44,280 RBC crossed 11,700 at 26.01.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-02-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.01
Bid-YTW : 3.07 %
TD.PR.A FixedReset 39,200 RBC crossed blocks of 20,000 and 16,500, both at 26.06.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.04
Bid-YTW : 3.11 %
There were 35 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
MFC.PR.F FixedReset Quote: 24.19 – 24.49
Spot Rate : 0.3000
Average : 0.1798

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.19
Bid-YTW : 4.00 %

TD.PR.S FixedReset Quote: 26.00 – 26.30
Spot Rate : 0.3000
Average : 0.2072

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-07-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.00
Bid-YTW : 2.56 %

MFC.PR.D FixedReset Quote: 26.78 – 27.00
Spot Rate : 0.2200
Average : 0.1404

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-06-19
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.78
Bid-YTW : 3.36 %

BNA.PR.C SplitShare Quote: 22.67 – 22.95
Spot Rate : 0.2800
Average : 0.2016

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2019-01-10
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.67
Bid-YTW : 6.12 %

CM.PR.L FixedReset Quote: 26.66 – 26.88
Spot Rate : 0.2200
Average : 0.1432

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-04-30
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.66
Bid-YTW : 2.92 %

TD.PR.Y FixedReset Quote: 26.03 – 26.26
Spot Rate : 0.2300
Average : 0.1554

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-10-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.03
Bid-YTW : 2.96 %

March 26, 2012

Monday, March 26th, 2012

Here’s a cheerful prediction from Italy:

Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti warned that Spain could reignite the European debt crisis as euro-area ministers this week prepare a deal to strengthen the region’s financial firewall.

Monti pointed to Spain’s struggle to control its finances ahead of a finance ministers meeting in Copenhagen starting on March 30, where officials will seek agreement to raise a 500 billion-euro ($664 billion) ceiling on bailout funding.

.“It doesn’t take much to recreate risks of contagion,” Monti said during the weekend at a conference in Cernobbio, Italy. Days after his Cabinet approved a bill to overhaul Italy’s labor laws, Monti praised Spain’s efforts to loosen work regulations while advising it to focus on cutting the national budget. Spain “hasn’t paid enough attention to its public accounts,” he said.

There are rumours that the acronym “HST” will soon stand for Hot Sex Tax.

It was a positive day overall for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums down 6bp, FixedResets up 14bp and DeemedRetractibles winning 20bp. Sun Life and Manulife dominated the positive side of a relatively lengthy Performance Highlights table. Volume was almost average.

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.5591 % 2,391.0
FixedFloater 4.55 % 3.94 % 35,127 17.37 1 0.0000 % 3,430.6
Floater 3.02 % 3.01 % 45,812 19.69 3 0.5591 % 2,581.7
OpRet 4.93 % 3.18 % 65,545 1.20 6 0.1032 % 2,499.8
SplitShare 5.28 % -3.88 % 83,446 0.72 4 0.0199 % 2,674.3
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.1032 % 2,285.8
Perpetual-Premium 5.45 % 4.18 % 98,442 0.18 25 -0.0632 % 2,203.1
Perpetual-Discount 5.22 % 5.32 % 193,740 14.95 7 0.1149 % 2,370.8
FixedReset 5.06 % 3.09 % 194,014 2.24 67 0.1409 % 2,380.9
Deemed-Retractible 4.97 % 4.07 % 218,830 2.93 46 0.1987 % 2,294.8
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
CIU.PR.A Perpetual-Premium -1.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-26
Maturity Price : 23.72
Evaluated at bid price : 24.00
Bid-YTW : 4.82 %
CM.PR.P Deemed-Retractible -1.19 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2012-10-29
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.15
Bid-YTW : 3.60 %
BAM.PR.B Floater 1.10 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-26
Maturity Price : 17.45
Evaluated at bid price : 17.45
Bid-YTW : 3.00 %
MFC.PR.F FixedReset 1.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.45
Bid-YTW : 3.86 %
SLF.PR.C Deemed-Retractible 1.25 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.66
Bid-YTW : 5.73 %
SLF.PR.A Deemed-Retractible 1.33 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.70
Bid-YTW : 5.46 %
SLF.PR.B Deemed-Retractible 1.40 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.83
Bid-YTW : 5.44 %
MFC.PR.B Deemed-Retractible 1.64 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.61
Bid-YTW : 5.43 %
SLF.PR.E Deemed-Retractible 1.70 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.78
Bid-YTW : 5.71 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
MFC.PR.A OpRet 590,370 Nesbitt gone wild! Nesbitt crossed five blocks: 274,800 shares, 96,800 shares, 25,000 shares, 160,000 and 25,000, all at 25.85.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-06-19
Maturity Price : 25.50
Evaluated at bid price : 25.80
Bid-YTW : 3.12 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset 151,057 RBC crossed 49,400 at 25.25; Desjardins crossed 25,000 at 25.29; TD crossed 35,000 at 25.25.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.23
Bid-YTW : 3.25 %
MFC.PR.F FixedReset 105,865 RBC crossed 99,400 at 24.47.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.45
Bid-YTW : 3.86 %
GWO.PR.G Deemed-Retractible 85,000 RBC crossed blocks of 23,000 and 50,000, both at 25.00.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.90
Bid-YTW : 5.28 %
CM.PR.J Deemed-Retractible 80,353 Called for redemption.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2012-04-30
Maturity Price : 26.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.96
Bid-YTW : 1.61 %
ENB.PR.F FixedReset 54,200 TD crossed 11,000 at 25.32.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2018-06-01
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.30
Bid-YTW : 3.94 %
There were 29 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
CM.PR.K FixedReset Quote: 26.08 – 26.79
Spot Rate : 0.7100
Average : 0.4943

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-07-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.08
Bid-YTW : 3.22 %

CM.PR.P Deemed-Retractible Quote: 25.15 – 25.60
Spot Rate : 0.4500
Average : 0.2651

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2012-10-29
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.15
Bid-YTW : 3.60 %

PWF.PR.P FixedReset Quote: 25.81 – 26.19
Spot Rate : 0.3800
Average : 0.2962

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-26
Maturity Price : 23.51
Evaluated at bid price : 25.81
Bid-YTW : 3.19 %

CM.PR.M FixedReset Quote: 26.80 – 27.05
Spot Rate : 0.2500
Average : 0.1775

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-07-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.80
Bid-YTW : 3.05 %

ENB.PR.A Perpetual-Premium Quote: 25.75 – 26.00
Spot Rate : 0.2500
Average : 0.1849

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2012-04-25
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.75
Bid-YTW : -24.33 %

IGM.PR.B Perpetual-Premium Quote: 26.40 – 26.98
Spot Rate : 0.5800
Average : 0.5154

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2018-12-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.40
Bid-YTW : 5.10 %

March 23, 2012

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

There may indeed have been some naughtiness at MF Global:

Jon S. Corzine, MF Global Holding Ltd. (MFGLQ)’s chief executive officer, gave “direct instructions” to transfer $200 million from a customer fund account to meet an overdraft in one of the brokerage’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) accounts in London, according to an e-mail sent by a firm executive.

Edith O’Brien, a treasurer for the firm, said in an e-mail sent the afternoon of Oct. 28, three days before the company collapsed, that the transfer of the funds was “Per JC’s direct instructions,” according to a copy of a memo drafted by congressional investigators and obtained by Bloomberg News.

There’s some kind of wierd scam going on. Twice in two days, I’ve received a call from somebody (different somebodies!) who asked – right off the bat – whether “you guys accept American Express”. The first time I wanted to know who he was and why he wanted to know – since he claimed to be from California and was only curious, I told him not to call again. The second time I asked who “Leah” worked for; she didn’t work for anybody, she was just curious.

So – a scam. But I can’t figure out how it works!

It was a day of modest gains in the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums gaining 4bp, FixedResets winning 11bp and DeemedRetractibles up 5bp. Considering the overall averages, the Performance Highlights table is relatively lengthy. Volume was very low.

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.9169 % 2,377.7
FixedFloater 4.55 % 3.94 % 36,515 17.37 1 -0.0478 % 3,430.6
Floater 3.04 % 3.03 % 45,363 19.65 3 -0.9169 % 2,567.3
OpRet 4.93 % 3.16 % 65,386 1.21 6 0.0000 % 2,497.2
SplitShare 5.29 % -3.84 % 83,877 0.73 4 0.0299 % 2,673.8
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.0000 % 2,283.5
Perpetual-Premium 5.44 % 3.32 % 100,830 0.83 25 0.0408 % 2,204.4
Perpetual-Discount 5.23 % 5.35 % 190,337 14.93 7 -0.5771 % 2,368.1
FixedReset 5.06 % 3.19 % 192,944 2.24 67 0.1085 % 2,377.6
Deemed-Retractible 4.98 % 4.07 % 209,361 2.93 46 0.0515 % 2,290.3
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
BAM.PR.B Floater -1.65 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-23
Maturity Price : 17.26
Evaluated at bid price : 17.26
Bid-YTW : 3.04 %
ELF.PR.G Perpetual-Discount -1.63 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-23
Maturity Price : 22.13
Evaluated at bid price : 22.38
Bid-YTW : 5.39 %
BAM.PR.M Perpetual-Discount -1.42 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-23
Maturity Price : 22.01
Evaluated at bid price : 22.26
Bid-YTW : 5.35 %
GWO.PR.I Deemed-Retractible -1.37 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.76
Bid-YTW : 5.16 %
BAM.PR.C Floater -1.37 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-23
Maturity Price : 17.31
Evaluated at bid price : 17.31
Bid-YTW : 3.03 %
BNS.PR.X FixedReset 1.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-04-25
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.99
Bid-YTW : 2.79 %
RY.PR.L FixedReset 1.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-02-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.55
Bid-YTW : 2.53 %
CIU.PR.A Perpetual-Premium 1.71 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-23
Maturity Price : 24.06
Evaluated at bid price : 24.35
Bid-YTW : 4.75 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset 211,309 TD crossed 55,000 and two blocks of 25,000 each at 25.25. RBC crossed 50,000 at the same price.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.20
Bid-YTW : 3.28 %
CM.PR.J Deemed-Retractible 80,618 Called for redemption.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2012-04-30
Maturity Price : 26.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.23
Bid-YTW : 1.85 %
TD.PR.G FixedReset 53,628 TD crossed blocks of 40,000 and 10,000 at 26.94.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-04-30
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.93
Bid-YTW : 2.89 %
BAM.PF.A FixedReset 33,746 Recent new issue.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-23
Maturity Price : 23.04
Evaluated at bid price : 24.85
Bid-YTW : 4.48 %
PWF.PR.R Perpetual-Premium 28,250 Recent new issue.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2021-04-30
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.45
Bid-YTW : 5.34 %
GWO.PR.P Deemed-Retractible 27,354 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.46
Bid-YTW : 5.25 %
There were 14 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
BNS.PR.P FixedReset Quote: 25.65 – 26.32
Spot Rate : 0.6700
Average : 0.3860

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-04-25
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.65
Bid-YTW : 3.27 %

IAG.PR.F Deemed-Retractible Quote: 25.51 – 26.39
Spot Rate : 0.8800
Average : 0.6663

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2019-03-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.51
Bid-YTW : 5.56 %

ELF.PR.G Perpetual-Discount Quote: 22.38 – 22.97
Spot Rate : 0.5900
Average : 0.4097

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2042-03-23
Maturity Price : 22.13
Evaluated at bid price : 22.38
Bid-YTW : 5.39 %

IGM.PR.B Perpetual-Premium Quote: 26.40 – 26.99
Spot Rate : 0.5900
Average : 0.4445

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2018-12-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.40
Bid-YTW : 5.10 %

BAM.PR.J OpRet Quote: 27.00 – 27.39
Spot Rate : 0.3900
Average : 0.2680

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-03-31
Maturity Price : 26.00
Evaluated at bid price : 27.00
Bid-YTW : 3.16 %

FTS.PR.E OpRet Quote: 26.11 – 27.00
Spot Rate : 0.8900
Average : 0.7712

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-06-01
Maturity Price : 25.75
Evaluated at bid price : 26.11
Bid-YTW : 3.82 %