PrefBlog

Nice story about technological disruption – a big change from The Diving Bell & the Butterfly:

Edwards, who suffered brain damage in 2001, can write e- mails, though, and she’s revisiting a favorite pastime, sketching, for the first time in a decade, thanks to her iPad and software applications that can cost as little as $7.

That’s a switch from the $15,000 communication device she had tried, a 9-pound machine approved by her insurer that tracks eye movement on a special grid corresponding to the alphabet. That device kept her tied to those in the room around her. The iPad, along with several other consumer-driven apps, has reopened the world to her.

Fitch has indicated a negative outlook on UK debt:

Fitch Ratings said Britain risks losing its top investment grade because of its limited ability to deal with shocks, days before Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will present his annual budget.

Fitch changed the outlook on Britain to “negative” from “stable,” indicating a “slightly greater” than 50 percent chance that the AAA rating will be reduced within two years, the company said in a statement in London late yesterday, citing the weak economic recovery, high debt levels and threats from Europe’s debt crisis. Osborne will meet coalition partners later this week to agree on a budget he will present on March 21.

It was a quiet day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums gaining 3bp, FixedResets up 1bp and DeemedRetractibles off 1bp. There were no entries on the Performance Highlights table. Volume returned to average levels.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.10%, equivalent to 6.63% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long Corporates now yield about 4.60%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (which in this context is the Seniority Spread) is now about 205bp, a slight tightening from the 210bp reported March 7.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Market Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.