Employment at companies rose 83,000, less than the 110,000 gain forecast by economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Including government, payrolls fell for the first time this year because of a drop in federal census workers. The jobless rate dropped to 9.5 percent from 9.7 percent as the labor force shrank, the Labor Department reported today in Washington.
OSFI has published a presentation by Michel Montambeault, Director, to the Canada Institute of Actuaries (CIA) Annual Meeting, on the topic of “Canadian Mortality Experience”, 29 June 2010, Vancouver, British Columbia. In related news, a cluster of longevity genes has been identified:
U.S. scientists say they have discovered the genetic signature of an exceptionally long life, and with nothing more than a DNA sample they can predict – with 77 per cent accuracy – those biologically built to live beyond a century.
They also predict that such a test, based on a set of 150 genetic markers, will be available to the curious by summer’s end.
“It’s really quite revolutionary,” said Thomas Perls, associate professor of medicine at Boston University and senior author of a research paper published online Thursday by the journal Science. “With the accuracy we’ve demonstrated, companies are going to pick this up. We’ll see it on the market in a month.”
Adverse selection just became a bigger risk for the insurance companies!
I sent an eMail to the Toronto Stock Exchange:
On June 30, MFC.PR.B traded 5,792 shares on the TSX in a range of 19.63-80 and closed at 19.01-66, 10×12. The last trade was at 3:58pm, 300 shares at 19.66.
I have a number of questions:
i) Who is the market maker for this issue?
ii) Which firm employs the market maker?
iii) What committments were made regarding spreads by the market maker?
iv) How have these committments been kept over the past year?
v) How have other committments made by this market maker been kept over the past year?
vi) How have other committments made by the market maker’s firm been kept over the past year?
We’ll see what happens with that! (Fearless prediction: Nothing).
On an extremely quiet day in the Canadian preferred share market, PerpetualDiscounts lost 4bp while FixedResets gained 14bp.
| 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 | 2.82 % | 2.92 % | 26,768 | 20.33 | 1 | 0.0000 % | 2,048.5 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -1.0732 % | 3,107.8 |
| Floater | 2.32 % | 1.97 % | 46,034 | 22.46 | 4 | -1.0732 % | 2,215.1 |
| OpRet | 4.87 % | 3.59 % | 79,627 | 0.88 | 11 | -0.0671 % | 2,334.3 |
| SplitShare | 6.38 % | 6.36 % | 87,888 | 3.46 | 2 | -0.2195 % | 2,173.9 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0671 % | 2,134.5 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.98 % | 5.88 % | 121,604 | 1.86 | 4 | -0.2973 % | 1,910.6 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.94 % | 6.01 % | 188,996 | 13.90 | 73 | -0.0418 % | 1,813.2 |
| FixedReset | 5.37 % | 3.90 % | 325,073 | 3.49 | 47 | 0.1434 % | 2,192.4 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| BAM.PR.B | Floater | -2.03 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-02 Maturity Price : 14.99 Evaluated at bid price : 14.99 Bid-YTW : 2.93 % |
| BAM.PR.K | Floater | -1.70 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-02 Maturity Price : 15.00 Evaluated at bid price : 15.00 Bid-YTW : 2.93 % |
| BAM.PR.H | OpRet | -1.23 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2010-08-01 Maturity Price : 25.50 Evaluated at bid price : 25.60 Bid-YTW : 1.24 % |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | -1.12 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-02 Maturity Price : 21.75 Evaluated at bid price : 22.00 Bid-YTW : 1.97 % |
| PWF.PR.O | Perpetual-Discount | -1.00 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-02 Maturity Price : 23.58 Evaluated at bid price : 23.76 Bid-YTW : 6.22 % |
| BAM.PR.R | FixedReset | 1.15 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-02 Maturity Price : 23.26 Evaluated at bid price : 25.50 Bid-YTW : 4.77 % |
| BNS.PR.Q | FixedReset | 1.28 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-11-24 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.99 Bid-YTW : 3.60 % |
| NA.PR.O | FixedReset | 1.56 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-03-17 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.94 Bid-YTW : 3.49 % |
| MFC.PR.B | Perpetual-Discount | 2.84 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-02 Maturity Price : 19.55 Evaluated at bid price : 19.55 Bid-YTW : 6.01 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| RY.PR.R | FixedReset | 31,130 | Desjardins crossed 27,400 at 27.37. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-03-26 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.50 Bid-YTW : 3.62 % |
| RY.PR.A | Perpetual-Discount | 25,703 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-02 Maturity Price : 19.56 Evaluated at bid price : 19.56 Bid-YTW : 5.77 % |
| MFC.PR.D | FixedReset | 19,477 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-07-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.50 Bid-YTW : 4.02 % |
| TRP.PR.C | FixedReset | 14,275 | Recent new issue. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-02 Maturity Price : 23.11 Evaluated at bid price : 24.96 Bid-YTW : 4.02 % |
| BNS.PR.N | Perpetual-Discount | 13,990 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-02 Maturity Price : 22.42 Evaluated at bid price : 22.55 Bid-YTW : 5.83 % |
| CM.PR.L | FixedReset | 13,735 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-05-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.78 Bid-YTW : 3.35 % |
| There were 5 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||