October 30, 2014

This sounds like a good programme:

Unemployed (USURTOT) and pregnant with her second child in late 2013, Shantel Burris knew she needed to make a change. In a year, the 24-year-old went from jobless benefits to earning double the New York minimum wage.

Her first step was getting a high school diploma, and a chat with a counselor sparked a “nonstop” process of preparation centered on 11 weeks of free job training and a battery of mock interviews at Career Network: Healthcare. The New York initiative trained and matched her with a position in August at Montefiore Medical Center, where she prepares patient meal trays for $16.08 an hour.

Programs like Career Network seek to alleviate a shortage of workers in jobs that require less than a bachelor’s degree though more than a high school diploma. For the 146.2 million Americans who are 18 and older without an associate’s or higher degree, such opportunities offer a pathway to higher pay and job stability that would be difficult to find on their own.

Success hinges on identifying openings at local employers and equipping a spectrum of Americans — from the jobless to the underemployed — with needed skills. Such programs might also help hiring catch up with job vacancies, which are near a record high.

The need for a demand-driven approach became apparent when JPMorgan Chase & Co., as part of its philanthropic efforts, explored ways to reduce the so-called skills gap. The New York-based company in December announced New Skills at Work, a five-year $250 million global project to tailor training to available jobs.

JPMorgan will examine labor demand in nine U.S. metro areas, identifying fast-growing industries with middle-skill openings and better pay. The data and funding will be shared with community organizations serving youth and long-term unemployed.

I think someone at CDHowe reads PrefBlog:

Canada’s central bank should start publishing minutes of interest-rate meetings including any dissenting views, to meet the standards of counterparts in the U.S. and U.K., a research group said.

Such a move would improve the Ottawa-based Bank of Canada’s transparency and improve public understanding of the process used to determine interest rates, the Toronto-based C.D. Howe Institute said in a report due to be published today.

The central bank has resisted disclosing minutes, saying the rate-setting panel works by consensus and the distilled views of policy makers are represented in the statements that accompany the eight-yearly rate decisions.

“Withholding dissenting opinions has the potential to limit public understanding of important monetary policy questions,” Pierre Siklos, an economics professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, said in a summary of the report, co-authored with Matthias Neuenkirch at the University of Trier in Germany.

I said the same thing on October 10, 2014 and December 10, 2013 … and probably earlier, since I’ve thought this forever, but I won’t bother looking up more dates.

Ben Steverman of Bloomberg points out that that even US banks are still in the pre-PC mainframe era:

Behind every check written, card swiped and paycheck delivered is an antiquated payment system that isn’t real time. About $80 trillion a year flows by fits and starts through a Rube Goldberg-like set of interlocking payment networks. The most prominent is the Automated Clearing House, or ACH, now celebrating its 40th birthday. These networks carry funds electronically, yes. But they often only sync up with banks once a day. In other words, if you miss today’s only flight off Kiribati, then you have to wait for tomorrow’s.

It can take a customer of a U.S. bank more than three days to transfer funds to another U.S. bank. Banks haven’t seen an advantage in speeding that up, even though the lag is painful for businesses and families. Purchases don’t always clear before a store owner has to pony up for more inventory. Families get hit with overdraft fees when checks really are in the mail.

What the U.S. needs, the Federal Reserve said last month, is an entirely “new infrastructure” to keep banks connected day, night and through the weekend. Then last week, the Clearing House, a group owned by the largest banks, said it would build a real-time payment network. It didn’t specify a time frame or release cost estimates. It did say your bank would credit your account immediately and settle up with the payer’s bank later. The Fed estimates businesses could save $10 to $40 billion with a more efficient network.

Banks have been procrastinating on an upgrade. They worry changing over 1970s-era networks will be a big hassle. A 24/7 system will need to sync with bank’s old batch systems, which are designed to need maintenance on Sundays. And, if popular enough, real-time payments could threaten banks’ annual collection of $30 billion in overdraft fees and more than $12 billion in card fees.

That’s NUTHIN’! For a bachelor’s degree in Banking Contempt, transfer money across the Canada-US border. For a master’s, transfer it abroad. And for a Ph.D., see what happens when one of the clerks along the way makes a trivial data-input error. That’s happened to me … the money just disappears for a few days. Completely. They can’t even guess what happened.

IIROC – a regulatory organization notable for funnelling slush-funds to well-connected, friendly enterprises – has stepped up its interference in the bond market:

The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada said Thursday that it will change the reporting system for debt securities dealers. They will soon be required to report every trade on a daily basis, rather than weekly.

The new rules officially come into effect in two phases starting in November 2015, and they are meant to tighten up the current market trade reporting system (MTRS), which is based on weekly statistics that IIROC has said are not dependable enough, since methodologies differ among the firms.

Under the current reporting system, dealers issue a weekly aggregate transaction report to the Bank of Canada through MTRS. In the new system, called MTRS 2.0, IIROC dealer members will swiftly report to IIROC all of their over the counter debt security transactions, as well as those of their affiliates that are government securities distributors (GSDs). IIROC will then share the data with the Bank of Canada.

Enbridge was confirmed at Pfd-2(low) by DBRS:

DBRS has confirmed the Issuer Rating of Enbridge Inc. (ENB or the Company) at A (low) and ratings on ENB’s Medium-Term Notes & Unsecured Debentures, Commercial Paper and Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Shares ratings at A (low), R-1 (low) and Pfd-2 (low), respectively, all with Stable trends. The ratings reflect (1) a relatively strong business risk profile, (2) pressure on ENB’s near-to-medium-term credit metrics and (3) results under the ten-year Competitive Tolling Settlement (CTS), effective July 1, 2011.

(2) DBRS expects ENB’s credit metrics, on fully consolidated and modified consolidated bases, to be pressured during the early years of its planned $37 billion capex program (excluding Sponsored Investments) from 2014 to 2018, due to a significant debt financing component related to large free cash flow deficits. DBRS expects improvement in the later years (as the longer-dated projects come onstream and begin to generate cash flow).

Enbridge has a lot of issues outstanding – roughly 10% of the universe. ENB.PF.A, ENB.PF.C, ENB.PF.E, ENB.PF.G, ENB.PR.A, ENB.PR.B, ENB.PR.D, ENB.PR.F, ENB.PR.H, ENB.PR.J, ENB.PR.N, ENB.PR.P, ENB.PR.T and ENB.PR.Y.

It was a mildly positive day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts, FixedResets and DeemedRetractibles all gaining 3bp. Volatility was average. Volume was very low.

The TMXMoney screen for BAM.PR.E is worth a picture:

BAMPRE_141030
Click for Big
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 3.33 % 3.33 % 18,207 18.96 1 7.0919 % 2,512.0
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.4131 % 3,972.5
Floater 3.00 % 3.11 % 62,797 19.44 4 -0.4131 % 2,667.4
OpRet 4.02 % -2.41 % 104,285 0.08 1 0.1571 % 2,748.7
SplitShare 4.27 % 3.61 % 72,619 3.79 5 0.0802 % 3,169.5
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.1571 % 2,513.4
Perpetual-Premium 5.46 % -4.00 % 70,552 0.08 18 0.0698 % 2,468.1
Perpetual-Discount 5.25 % 5.09 % 102,249 15.22 18 0.0330 % 2,625.7
FixedReset 4.20 % 3.64 % 171,691 8.58 75 0.0324 % 2,570.5
Deemed-Retractible 5.00 % 2.00 % 98,728 0.17 42 0.0325 % 2,579.6
FloatingReset 2.55 % 0.72 % 69,573 0.16 6 0.1761 % 2,550.1
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
PWF.PR.A Floater -2.56 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-10-30
Maturity Price : 19.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.00
Bid-YTW : 2.75 %
FTS.PR.G FixedReset -1.20 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-10-30
Maturity Price : 23.16
Evaluated at bid price : 24.70
Bid-YTW : 3.65 %
BAM.PR.T FixedReset 1.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-10-30
Maturity Price : 23.44
Evaluated at bid price : 24.86
Bid-YTW : 3.85 %
MFC.PR.F FixedReset 1.66 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.70
Bid-YTW : 4.32 %
BAM.PR.E Ratchet 7.09 % There were two trades today, at 23.47 and 23.48, which must have overloaded the computers and taxed the expertise of market-maker, because (as shown by the screenshot above) TMXMoney is reporting the CDN Consolidated Quote as no-bid, no-offer, even though they also show a TSX quote of 22.50-49. We are left to conclude that the Toronto Exchange is no longer included in the Canadian consolidation.

Anyway, this market move report isn’t real, it’s just a reversal of yesterday’s nonsense.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-10-30
Maturity Price : 22.35
Evaluated at bid price : 22.50
Bid-YTW : 3.33 %

Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
TRP.PR.A FixedReset 208,235 The first Exchange Date is 2014-12-31 and the dividend will (barring ridiculously low-probability events) fall substantially (HIMIPref™ incorporates the current estimate in the calculated yield).

Desjardins crossed 200,000 at 21.73.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-10-30
Maturity Price : 21.42
Evaluated at bid price : 21.71
Bid-YTW : 3.96 %

NA.PR.W FixedReset 171,770 Recent new issue.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-10-30
Maturity Price : 23.15
Evaluated at bid price : 25.01
Bid-YTW : 3.67 %
BMO.PR.S FixedReset 131,674 Nesbitt crossed 50,000 at 25.52. Scotia crossed blocks of 25,000 and 49,200, both at 25.52.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2019-05-25
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.48
Bid-YTW : 3.49 %
BMO.PR.K Deemed-Retractible 103,062 Scotia crossed two blocks of 25,000 each and one of 49,200, all at 25.78.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-12-25
Maturity Price : 25.50
Evaluated at bid price : 25.77
Bid-YTW : -4.08 %
FTS.PR.H FixedReset 102,650 Nesbitt crossed 100,000 at 20.25.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-10-30
Maturity Price : 20.21
Evaluated at bid price : 20.21
Bid-YTW : 3.74 %
PWF.PR.E Perpetual-Premium 81,145 Desjardins bought blocks of 39,600 and 39,500 from anonymous, both at 25.40.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-11-29
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.34
Bid-YTW : -10.84 %
There were 16 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
RY.PR.I FixedReset Quote: 25.45 – 25.78
Spot Rate : 0.3300
Average : 0.2048

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2019-02-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.45
Bid-YTW : 3.03 %

ENB.PR.F FixedReset Quote: 24.62 – 24.89
Spot Rate : 0.2700
Average : 0.1725

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-10-30
Maturity Price : 23.16
Evaluated at bid price : 24.62
Bid-YTW : 4.02 %

BNS.PR.Q FixedReset Quote: 25.36 – 25.64
Spot Rate : 0.2800
Average : 0.1950

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.36
Bid-YTW : 3.22 %

TD.PR.T FloatingReset Quote: 25.40 – 25.69
Spot Rate : 0.2900
Average : 0.2076

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2018-07-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.40
Bid-YTW : 1.84 %

ENB.PR.B FixedReset Quote: 24.62 – 24.84
Spot Rate : 0.2200
Average : 0.1438

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-10-30
Maturity Price : 23.31
Evaluated at bid price : 24.62
Bid-YTW : 3.93 %

W.PR.H Perpetual-Premium Quote: 25.06 – 25.50
Spot Rate : 0.4400
Average : 0.3639

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-11-29
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.06
Bid-YTW : 5.37 %

One Response to “October 30, 2014”

  1. gimlimike says:

    shame on you James for calling a banks dependability into question. You must not realize that WE exist to provide profit for thier bottom line, you probably have experienced thier indignation that you might want to know where your money is and started to get the feeling that you are being a bother. Your money will show up but you will never get an apology from them for their incompetence. What do you expect, the service you paid for does not include thier time to re-read the input, after all its not thier money thier money thier losing. Good luck and remember its your hair that will turn grey not theirs !

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