February 10, 2017

McJobs, McJobs, McJobs!

Data released Friday show a labor market that’s finally beginning to create new jobs, while at the same time offering little evidence that’s translating into higher incomes for workers as wage growth and hours worked slump.

Still, wage data showed underlying weakness that may complicate matters for Bank of Canada policy makers. Average hourly wages for permanent employees increased 1 percent in January from a year earlier, the slowest pace of growth since at least 2003. Hours worked also fell 0.8 percent from a year earlier.

Most of the gains came from two categories — a 20,500 increase in finance, insurance, real estate and leasing and another 16,400 in business, building and other support services — and for men aged 25 to 54, with the increase of about 30,000 the largest in more than two years.

It was split between 32,400 part-time positions and 15,800 full-time jobs.

There’s a fascinating story about Nav Sarao, the Flash Crash scapegoat, that shows once again that trading and investment management are two completely different things:

After four months of dead ends, his legal team struck a deal with the authorities: If the U.S. Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission agreed not to oppose a reduction in bail to 50,000 pounds, the firm would act as a bounty hunter, taking on responsibility for tracking down the missing millions on the condition that its fees be paid if it did.

They were going down a rabbit hole. A review of Sarao’s investments from 2005 to the present day, based on dozens of interviews and thousands of pages of documents, reveals another twist in an already remarkable story. Navinder Sarao, the trading savant accused of sabotaging the world’s financial markets from his bedroom, may himself have been the naïve victim of what his lawyers portray as a series of cons that stripped him of almost every cent he earned.

Sarao declined to comment for this article. His lawyer, Roger Burlingame of Kobre & Kim in London, told a U.S. judge in November that all of the defendant’s assets “have been stolen.” Sarao invested in ventures from which he, the law firm and the CFTC had been unable to recover the funds, Burlingame said. “Basically, he has some extraordinary abilities with respect to pattern recognition and certain sorts of mathematical abilities, but he has some fairly severe social limitations.”

The story also illustrates the regulatory penchant for going after the easy marks for trivial infringements of arbitrary rules while ignoring the real crooks in the industry.

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 0.1603 % 1,997.2
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.1603 % 3,664.7
Floater 3.78 % 3.96 % 47,260 17.47 4 0.1603 % 2,112.0
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.1079 % 2,970.2
SplitShare 4.70 % 4.51 % 56,174 4.15 4 0.1079 % 3,547.1
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.1079 % 2,767.6
Perpetual-Premium 5.44 % -1.70 % 77,668 0.09 16 0.0245 % 2,727.3
Perpetual-Discount 5.16 % 5.18 % 107,437 15.10 22 0.2978 % 2,913.1
FixedReset 4.49 % 4.16 % 223,928 6.74 97 -0.1447 % 2,289.5
Deemed-Retractible 5.03 % 0.13 % 131,640 0.14 31 0.1980 % 2,842.2
FloatingReset 2.50 % 3.16 % 47,455 4.69 9 0.1837 % 2,445.6
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
IFC.PR.C FixedReset -1.47 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.43
Bid-YTW : 5.84 %
TRP.PR.E FixedReset -1.34 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 21.37
Evaluated at bid price : 21.37
Bid-YTW : 4.18 %
PWF.PR.P FixedReset -1.15 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 15.51
Evaluated at bid price : 15.51
Bid-YTW : 4.24 %
CU.PR.I FixedReset -1.13 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2020-12-01
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.30
Bid-YTW : 2.99 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset 1.00 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.19
Bid-YTW : 4.72 %
SLF.PR.D Deemed-Retractible 1.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.29
Bid-YTW : 6.32 %
CU.PR.C FixedReset 1.13 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 21.51
Evaluated at bid price : 21.51
Bid-YTW : 4.07 %
MFC.PR.O FixedReset 1.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2021-06-19
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 27.08
Bid-YTW : 3.75 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
BAM.PF.F FixedReset 46,385 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 22.81
Evaluated at bid price : 23.56
Bid-YTW : 4.27 %
TRP.PR.K FixedReset 36,821 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2022-05-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.76
Bid-YTW : 4.24 %
RY.PR.J FixedReset 36,300 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 22.35
Evaluated at bid price : 22.91
Bid-YTW : 4.11 %
RY.PR.Z FixedReset 35,585 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 21.06
Evaluated at bid price : 21.06
Bid-YTW : 4.02 %
BIP.PR.D FixedReset 34,166 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 23.20
Evaluated at bid price : 25.13
Bid-YTW : 4.90 %
TRP.PR.E FixedReset 32,587 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 21.37
Evaluated at bid price : 21.37
Bid-YTW : 4.18 %
There were 34 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
VNR.PR.A FixedReset Quote: 21.00 – 21.50
Spot Rate : 0.5000
Average : 0.3742

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 21.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.00
Bid-YTW : 4.71 %

IFC.PR.C FixedReset Quote: 21.43 – 21.75
Spot Rate : 0.3200
Average : 0.1989

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.43
Bid-YTW : 5.84 %

HSE.PR.A FixedReset Quote: 14.94 – 15.35
Spot Rate : 0.4100
Average : 0.2983

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 14.94
Evaluated at bid price : 14.94
Bid-YTW : 4.62 %

BAM.PR.T FixedReset Quote: 18.80 – 19.10
Spot Rate : 0.3000
Average : 0.2005

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 18.80
Evaluated at bid price : 18.80
Bid-YTW : 4.58 %

CU.PR.I FixedReset Quote: 26.30 – 26.67
Spot Rate : 0.3700
Average : 0.2763

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2020-12-01
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.30
Bid-YTW : 2.99 %

CU.PR.C FixedReset Quote: 21.51 – 22.00
Spot Rate : 0.4900
Average : 0.4030

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2047-02-10
Maturity Price : 21.51
Evaluated at bid price : 21.51
Bid-YTW : 4.07 %

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