Foreclosures are down in the States, but it’s not really good news:
Foreclosure filings in the U.S. fell 34 percent last month from a year earlier as lenders already swamped with seized homes delayed action on thousands of additional delinquent mortgages, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
A total of 219,258 properties received default, auction or repossession notices in April, the fewest in 40 months, the Irvine, California-based data seller said today in a statement. It was the seventh straight month that filings dropped from a year earlier. They were down 9 percent from March. One in 593 U.S. households got a notice.
“Banks already sitting on thousands of properties they can’t sell as quickly and profitably as they’d like aren’t going to be anxious to accelerate foreclosures on tens of thousands more,” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president, said in an e-mail.
But commercial real-estate is doing well enough:
Investors are turning to secondary markets as credit availability improves and surging demand for properties in New York, Washington and San Francisco boosts prices and reduces returns in those areas. Cities such as Dallas and Houston are attracting real estate buyers because of the prospects for job and population growth, according to Robert Bach, chief economist for Grubb & Ellis Co., a Santa Ana, California-based broker.
Jonathan Weil made a good observation yesterday:
Whenever you see an issuer of securities — be it a sovereign nation or a Wall Street bank — blame speculators, journalists or rumor- mongerers for its troubles, you know the bosses there are panicking.
One could even add “bloggers” to that list, nowadays!
It was a mixed day in the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts off 6bp, FixedResets up 3bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 12bp; but all three entries in the Performance Highlights table were positive. Volume was very light and spreads on some of the less liquid issues reached ridiculous levels.
| 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 | -0.1524 % | 2,444.2 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.1524 % | 3,676.1 |
| Floater | 2.47 % | 2.26 % | 38,498 | 21.60 | 4 | -0.1524 % | 2,639.1 |
| OpRet | 4.87 % | 3.63 % | 62,588 | 0.46 | 9 | -0.0643 % | 2,421.1 |
| SplitShare | 5.20 % | -1.69 % | 64,323 | 0.59 | 6 | 0.2219 % | 2,506.5 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0643 % | 2,213.8 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.74 % | 4.96 % | 132,218 | 1.01 | 9 | -0.0463 % | 2,063.7 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.53 % | 5.55 % | 118,497 | 14.52 | 15 | -0.0649 % | 2,148.3 |
| FixedReset | 5.14 % | 3.24 % | 205,004 | 2.86 | 57 | 0.0264 % | 2,310.4 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.18 % | 4.91 % | 297,928 | 8.08 | 53 | 0.1238 % | 2,120.6 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| TDS.PR.C | SplitShare | 1.07 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2011-12-15 Maturity Price : 10.00 Evaluated at bid price : 10.38 Bid-YTW : -1.69 % |
| BAM.PR.X | FixedReset | 1.10 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-05-12 Maturity Price : 23.06 Evaluated at bid price : 24.87 Bid-YTW : 4.30 % |
| IAG.PR.A | Deemed-Retractible | 1.14 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 22.15 Bid-YTW : 6.17 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| MFC.PR.D | FixedReset | 232,222 | RBC crossed blocks of 100,000 and 114,800, both at 27.55. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-07-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.51 Bid-YTW : 3.62 % |
| TRP.PR.A | FixedReset | 38,231 | Desjardins crossed 29,400 at 26.05. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2015-01-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.02 Bid-YTW : 3.57 % |
| RY.PR.X | FixedReset | 34,600 | TD crossed 25,000 at 27.40. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-09-23 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.35 Bid-YTW : 3.28 % |
| MFC.PR.A | OpRet | 29,430 | TD crossed 25,000 at 25.80. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Soft Maturity Maturity Date : 2015-12-18 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.65 Bid-YTW : 3.64 % |
| RY.PR.A | Deemed-Retractible | 27,637 | Desjardins bought 11,500 from Nesbitt at 24.40. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.37 Bid-YTW : 4.76 % |
| RY.PR.G | Deemed-Retractible | 24,243 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.24 Bid-YTW : 4.87 % |
| There were 23 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| BAM.PR.J | OpRet | Quote: 26.86 – 28.66 Spot Rate : 1.8000 Average : 1.0566 YTW SCENARIO |
| IAG.PR.C | FixedReset | Quote: 26.95 – 28.25 Spot Rate : 1.3000 Average : 0.9425 YTW SCENARIO |
| BNS.PR.Z | FixedReset | Quote: 24.77 – 25.45 Spot Rate : 0.6800 Average : 0.5586 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | Quote: 23.49 – 23.80 Spot Rate : 0.3100 Average : 0.2139 YTW SCENARIO |
| TRP.PR.A | FixedReset | Quote: 26.02 – 26.25 Spot Rate : 0.2300 Average : 0.1476 YTW SCENARIO |
| FTS.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 23.10 – 23.33 Spot Rate : 0.2300 Average : 0.1499 YTW SCENARIO |