Fairfax isn’t having much luck with its lawsuit:
James Chanos’s Kynikos Associates LP and Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC won dismissal from an $8 billion lawsuit accusing the two hedge funds of spreading negative information to drive down Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (FFH)’s stock price.
…
In September, Hansbury dismissed billionaire Steven A. Cohen and his Stamford, Connecticut-based SAC Capital Advisors LP from the case.“One must establish that the defendants purposely availed themselves of the State of New Jersey and that the alleged improper conduct was expected or intended to be felt within the State of New Jersey,” Hansbury wrote. He said Fairfax didn’t do that.
…
Fairfax said the funds coaxed John Gwynn, a former insurance analyst at Morgan Keegan & Co. in Memphis, Tennessee, into giving them his negative Fairfax reports before they were published. It also said they hired an outside analyst, Spyro Contogouris, to spread false Fairfax information.
I don’t know. Obviously, there needs to be some way to get legal redress for libel, if libel has occured. But mainly, my reaction to this is the same as my reaction to things like criminalizing Armenian genocide denial, criminalizing criticism of the Egyptian armed forces and criminalizing criticism of the Thai monarchy, to name but a few: if you need to go to law, it implies you don’t believe your facts and arguments are sufficient.
How about that ECB balance sheet, eh?:
The European Central Bank’s balance sheet soared to a record 2.73 trillion euros ($3.55 trillion) after it lent financial institutions more money last week to keep credit flowing to the economy during the debt crisis.
Lending to euro-area banks jumped 214 billion euros to 879 billion euros in the week ended Dec. 23, the Frankfurt-based ECB said in a statement today. The balance sheet increased by 239 billion euros in the week and was 553 billion euros higher than three months ago.
Those keeping score may wish to compare this number to the evolution of the Fed balance sheet.
It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts losing 14bp, FixedResets up 12bp and DeemedRetractibles winning 18bp. Volatility was quite good, with a lot of variety in terms of both issuers and preferred share types. Volume was pathetic, as might be expected for the Christmas-New Year’s period.
PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.11%, equivalent to 6.64% at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long corporates now yield about 4.60%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (also called the Seniority spread) is now about 205bp, unchanged from December 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 | 0.8023 % | 2,072.2 |
| FixedFloater | 4.93 % | 4.69 % | 40,157 | 16.96 | 1 | 0.8373 % | 3,125.9 |
| Floater | 3.21 % | 3.52 % | 72,008 | 18.47 | 3 | 0.8023 % | 2,237.4 |
| OpRet | 4.96 % | 1.70 % | 66,655 | 1.38 | 6 | -0.2971 % | 2,463.5 |
| SplitShare | 5.44 % | 2.19 % | 76,645 | 0.94 | 4 | -0.0975 % | 2,569.8 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.2971 % | 2,252.6 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.48 % | -2.13 % | 89,620 | 0.09 | 18 | 0.1247 % | 2,187.9 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.21 % | 5.11 % | 106,933 | 15.15 | 12 | -0.1373 % | 2,331.0 |
| FixedReset | 5.08 % | 2.94 % | 217,386 | 2.42 | 64 | 0.1223 % | 2,355.5 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 4.99 % | 3.44 % | 194,706 | 1.35 | 46 | 0.1849 % | 2,251.3 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| CU.PR.A | Perpetual-Premium | -1.50 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-01-27 Maturity Price : 25.25 Evaluated at bid price : 25.61 Bid-YTW : -6.27 % |
| BAM.PR.M | Perpetual-Discount | -1.15 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-12-28 Maturity Price : 22.80 Evaluated at bid price : 23.22 Bid-YTW : 5.12 % |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | -1.03 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-12-28 Maturity Price : 19.20 Evaluated at bid price : 19.20 Bid-YTW : 2.75 % |
| SLF.PR.H | FixedReset | 1.08 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 22.45 Bid-YTW : 5.01 % |
| GWO.PR.N | FixedReset | 1.32 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.02 Bid-YTW : 4.02 % |
| W.PR.J | Perpetual-Premium | 1.37 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-01-27 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.58 Bid-YTW : -24.10 % |
| BMO.PR.K | Deemed-Retractible | 1.41 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-11-25 Maturity Price : 26.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.68 Bid-YTW : 2.65 % |
| W.PR.H | Perpetual-Premium | 1.43 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-01-15 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.50 Bid-YTW : 3.31 % |
| BAM.PR.B | Floater | 1.64 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-12-28 Maturity Price : 14.90 Evaluated at bid price : 14.90 Bid-YTW : 3.52 % |
| MFC.PR.C | Deemed-Retractible | 2.08 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.10 Bid-YTW : 6.70 % |
| BAM.PR.K | Floater | 2.41 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-12-28 Maturity Price : 14.90 Evaluated at bid price : 14.90 Bid-YTW : 3.52 % |
| CIU.PR.B | FixedReset | 2.42 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-06-01 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.97 Bid-YTW : 1.90 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| MFC.PR.C | Deemed-Retractible | 23,147 | Nesbitt bought 10,000 from TD at 21.40. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.10 Bid-YTW : 6.70 % |
| CM.PR.I | Deemed-Retractible | 21,750 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-01-31 Maturity Price : 26.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.92 Bid-YTW : 3.20 % |
| BNS.PR.J | Deemed-Retractible | 15,029 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-10-29 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.41 Bid-YTW : 2.56 % |
| MFC.PR.D | FixedReset | 14,399 | RBC crossed 13,000 at 26.81. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-06-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.56 Bid-YTW : 4.03 % |
| CM.PR.E | Perpetual-Premium | 13,337 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-01-27 Maturity Price : 25.25 Evaluated at bid price : 25.24 Bid-YTW : -0.44 % |
| RY.PR.E | Deemed-Retractible | 12,265 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2015-02-24 Maturity Price : 25.25 Evaluated at bid price : 25.83 Bid-YTW : 3.84 % |
| There were 2 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| IAG.PR.A | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 23.48 – 24.89 Spot Rate : 1.4100 Average : 0.8516 YTW SCENARIO |
| TCA.PR.Y | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 52.26 – 52.96 Spot Rate : 0.7000 Average : 0.4529 YTW SCENARIO |
| GWO.PR.N | FixedReset | Quote: 23.02 – 23.70 Spot Rate : 0.6800 Average : 0.4677 YTW SCENARIO |
| IAG.PR.E | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 25.86 – 26.44 Spot Rate : 0.5800 Average : 0.4037 YTW SCENARIO |
| TCA.PR.X | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 52.22 – 52.80 Spot Rate : 0.5800 Average : 0.4052 YTW SCENARIO |
| FTS.PR.C | OpRet | Quote: 25.75 – 26.20 Spot Rate : 0.4500 Average : 0.2784 YTW SCENARIO |