So the big news of the day was the US jobs number:
Payrolls pushed past their U.S. pre-recession peak for the first time in May, a milestone that’s been five years in the making.
The 217,000 advance in hiring followed a 282,000 gain in April, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. It marked the fourth consecutive month employment increased by more than 200,000, the first time that’s happened since early 2000. The jobless rate unexpectedly held at an almost six-year low of 6.3 percent.
…
The report also showed incomes climbed, the ranks of the long-term unemployed decreased and businesses took on more full-time help, evidence of the type of economic progress that will keep the Federal Reserve paring record monetary stimulus.
…
The so-called participation rate, which indicates the share of working-age people in the labor force, held at 62.8 percent, matching the lowest since March 1978.
Drew DeSilver of Pew Research points out:
But while the country may have climbed out of the deepest jobs hole since the Depression, that hardly means everything is peachy. There are about 15 million more working-age people now than there were in January 2008, but essentially the same number of jobs. Only 58.9% of the adult population is employed, four percentage points below the level in January 2008.
As the above chart from the Economic Policy Institute (prepared before today’s jobs report) shows, the economy is still some 7 million jobs short of what it would need for the employment-to-population ratio to reach its pre-recession level. EPI economist Heidi Shierholz commented, “We are far, far from healthy labor market conditions.”
The morally pure among us will be thrilled that Christian Bittar has been fined megabucks for a back-dated crime:
Britain’s markets regulator is seeking to fine former Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) trader Christian Bittar about 10 million pounds ($17 million) for trying to rig benchmark interest rates, its largest ever penalty against an individual, said a person with knowledge of the situation.
…
The penalty would dwarf the $9.6 million imposed on Rameshkumar Goenka, a Dubai-based investor, for manipulating stocks in London, the regulator’s biggest to date. The FCA has said it’s preparing to fine at least seven other traders it didn’t identify for their roles in trying to rig the London interbank offered rate or similar benchmarks. At least two may be fined more than one million pounds each, according to people with knowledge of the talks.
Well, Zero Hedge will be happy, anyway:
So to summarize:
1.Deutsche tells an internal prop trader to invest billions in the Libor market,but tells him: “do everything legally and by the book or else.”
2.Bittar colludes with virtually everyone else under the sun (for a full roster of names all of which point to one place: Switzerland, and secondly Singapore, see here), to generate billions in profits;
3.Bittar makes tens if not hundreds of millions of bonuses for himself;
4.Finally, DB no longer can hide the deception and claws back a portion of Bittar’s bonuses, while washing its hands of the full affair;
5.Scapegoat punished, life goes on.
And then what happened to Bittar?He now works for Bluecrest Capital Management LLP, Europe’s third- biggest hedge fund with $30 billion under management.
I.e., nothing changes.
It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts off 4bp, FixedResets up 15bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 5bp. Volatility was minimal. Volume was extremely 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 | 0.1380 % | 2,519.9 |
| FixedFloater | 4.56 % | 3.81 % | 30,598 | 17.79 | 1 | 0.0000 % | 3,768.4 |
| Floater | 2.89 % | 3.02 % | 46,130 | 19.61 | 4 | 0.1380 % | 2,720.8 |
| OpRet | 4.37 % | -13.36 % | 28,178 | 0.08 | 2 | 0.2336 % | 2,717.9 |
| SplitShare | 4.82 % | 4.31 % | 65,310 | 4.15 | 5 | -0.1750 % | 3,109.0 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.2336 % | 2,485.3 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.52 % | 3.63 % | 83,738 | 0.09 | 17 | -0.0785 % | 2,399.0 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.27 % | 5.27 % | 104,443 | 14.99 | 20 | -0.0408 % | 2,538.7 |
| FixedReset | 4.52 % | 3.70 % | 221,981 | 8.57 | 78 | 0.1465 % | 2,522.9 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.01 % | 1.38 % | 149,083 | 0.15 | 43 | 0.0466 % | 2,524.3 |
| FloatingReset | 2.68 % | 2.53 % | 136,565 | 3.98 | 6 | 0.0332 % | 2,480.4 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| MFC.PR.K | FixedReset | 1.10 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.87 Bid-YTW : 3.85 % |
| MFC.PR.J | FixedReset | 1.27 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2018-03-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.56 Bid-YTW : 3.34 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| BMO.PR.T | FixedReset | 1,105,469 | New issue settled today. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-06-06 Maturity Price : 23.14 Evaluated at bid price : 24.97 Bid-YTW : 3.71 % |
| TD.PF.A | FixedReset | 167,080 | Recent new issue. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-06-06 Maturity Price : 23.14 Evaluated at bid price : 25.02 Bid-YTW : 3.70 % |
| RY.PR.H | FixedReset | 107,539 | Recent new issue. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-06-06 Maturity Price : 23.14 Evaluated at bid price : 24.98 Bid-YTW : 3.73 % |
| BAM.PF.F | FixedReset | 83,105 | Recent new issue YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-06-06 Maturity Price : 23.13 Evaluated at bid price : 24.97 Bid-YTW : 4.35 % |
| BAM.PR.T | FixedReset | 77,881 | TD crossed 67,700 at 24.50. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-06-06 Maturity Price : 23.23 Evaluated at bid price : 24.52 Bid-YTW : 4.02 % |
| BNS.PR.Z | FixedReset | 29,540 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.03 Bid-YTW : 3.75 % |
| There were 16 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: 21.13 – 22.25 Spot Rate : 1.1200 Average : 0.6481 YTW SCENARIO |
| GWO.PR.I | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 22.35 – 23.10 Spot Rate : 0.7500 Average : 0.4865 YTW SCENARIO |
| FTS.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 23.85 – 24.47 Spot Rate : 0.6200 Average : 0.3938 YTW SCENARIO |
| CIU.PR.C | FixedReset | Quote: 20.93 – 21.70 Spot Rate : 0.7700 Average : 0.5972 YTW SCENARIO |
| TRP.PR.E | FixedReset | Quote: 25.06 – 25.44 Spot Rate : 0.3800 Average : 0.2243 YTW SCENARIO |
| ELF.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 24.01 – 24.43 Spot Rate : 0.4200 Average : 0.3036 YTW SCENARIO |