European leaders are continuing their desperate efforts to divert attention from the causes of the Greek crisis:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Greece doesn’t need financial aid, as she turned her focus to restricting the use of derivatives to halt “speculators” from exploiting countries’ budget deficits.
“Credit-default swaps, where you insure your neighbor’s house just to destroy it and make money from it, that’s exactly what we have to curb,” Merkel said at a joint press conference in Berlin today with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.
…
Merkel said that Greece has done its work and that Europe and the U.S. must ensure that financial-market speculators aren’t allowed to inflict further damage on Greece or on other countries.“We must succeed at putting a stop to the speculators’ game with sovereign states,” Merkel said. “We can’t allow speculators to be the profiteers of Greece’s difficult situation.” While “technically not easy,” derivatives including credit-default swaps “must be curbed,” she said.
The Greek situation has spiralled (almost?) out of control due to European complacency. After years of turning a blind eye to the problem, they now have to face it … and no politician likes problems. Shoot the messenger!
Volume was good today but price action was muted, with PerpetualDiscounts gaining 2bp and FixedResets up 3bp. There were only two entries on the performance highlights tables – from the Floating Rate class, naturally enough!
| 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 | 2.72 % | 2.81 % | 40,717 | 20.59 | 1 | -0.0481 % | 2,035.1 |
| FixedFloater | 5.30 % | 3.41 % | 41,482 | 19.69 | 1 | 0.4410 % | 2,980.3 |
| Floater | 1.92 % | 1.65 % | 48,204 | 23.50 | 4 | 0.9833 % | 2,398.2 |
| OpRet | 4.88 % | 2.28 % | 109,170 | 0.23 | 13 | 0.1191 % | 2,308.3 |
| SplitShare | 6.39 % | 6.43 % | 127,751 | 3.72 | 2 | -0.1978 % | 2,137.1 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1191 % | 2,110.7 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.90 % | 5.84 % | 131,946 | 5.86 | 7 | -0.0625 % | 1,887.8 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.87 % | 5.90 % | 175,924 | 14.02 | 71 | 0.0161 % | 1,798.1 |
| FixedReset | 5.40 % | 3.55 % | 317,315 | 3.72 | 42 | 0.0279 % | 2,192.5 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | 1.73 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-03-05 Maturity Price : 23.20 Evaluated at bid price : 23.50 Bid-YTW : 1.65 % |
| HSB.PR.D | Perpetual-Discount | 2.00 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-03-05 Maturity Price : 22.24 Evaluated at bid price : 22.39 Bid-YTW : 5.68 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| BNS.PR.L | Perpetual-Discount | 153,219 | TD crossed 25,000 at 20.05. Nesbitt crossed 100,000 at 20.07. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-03-05 Maturity Price : 19.96 Evaluated at bid price : 19.96 Bid-YTW : 5.72 % |
| TD.PR.P | Perpetual-Discount | 108,820 | Nesbitt crossed 100,000 at 23.54. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-03-05 Maturity Price : 23.22 Evaluated at bid price : 23.40 Bid-YTW : 5.67 % |
| TRP.PR.A | FixedReset | 106,759 | Nesbitt crossed 19,900 at 26.10. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2015-01-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.11 Bid-YTW : 3.54 % |
| TD.PR.S | FixedReset | 106,348 | Nesbitt crossed 100,000 at 26.27. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-08-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.26 Bid-YTW : 3.55 % |
| RY.PR.C | Perpetual-Discount | 76,110 | TD crossed 73,400 at 20.35. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-03-05 Maturity Price : 20.30 Evaluated at bid price : 20.30 Bid-YTW : 5.72 % |
| SLF.PR.C | Perpetual-Discount | 75,532 | Scotia crossed 62,000 at 18.60. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-03-05 Maturity Price : 18.61 Evaluated at bid price : 18.61 Bid-YTW : 5.99 % |
| There were 37 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||