No commentary today! PrefLetter has left me a hollow shell of a man.
But I will say that I’m very glad to see that the thug from Nova Scotia, Lenore Zann, appears to intend to quit Twitter. This two-bit politician got into some kind of dispute on Twitter and immediately had hysterics, calling the police, the Nova Scotia ‘CyberBullying Squad’, and her antagonist’s high-school principal (believe it or not!) in order to make the problem go away. In so doing she showed a lamentable disregard for the law and the Charter of Rights as well as simply behaving extremely poorly.
It seems there’s something of a trend for politicians and government officials to abuse the law in order to silence their critics in a relatively new form of libel chill. Many will remember similar cases such as Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin and Toronto Police Constable Adam Josephs, aka Officer Bubbles have used legal and bureaucratic methods to silence their critics – and succeeded (at least in part), mainly because it costs too much to fight the virtually unlimited powers of the state. It’s a worry. Do we really want to be one of those countries in which not just criticizing the president, but any government functionary is a criminal offence?
It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts gaining 2bp, FixedResets down 16bp and DeemedRetractibles off 8bp. Low-spread FixedResets dominated the bad side of a fairly lengthy – and overwhelmingly negative – Performance Highlights table. Volume was high.
| 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 | -0.1876 % | 2,524.9 |
| FixedFloater | 4.41 % | 3.69 % | 39,788 | 17.92 | 1 | -0.0927 % | 3,807.6 |
| Floater | 2.96 % | 2.95 % | 60,909 | 19.85 | 3 | -0.1876 % | 2,726.2 |
| OpRet | 4.64 % | 1.10 % | 85,517 | 0.29 | 3 | 0.2324 % | 2,662.9 |
| SplitShare | 4.89 % | 4.79 % | 77,084 | 4.50 | 5 | 0.1213 % | 2,993.7 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.2324 % | 2,435.0 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.63 % | 5.55 % | 135,937 | 4.30 | 13 | -0.0260 % | 2,296.5 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.71 % | 5.72 % | 176,168 | 14.23 | 25 | 0.0217 % | 2,308.1 |
| FixedReset | 5.01 % | 3.62 % | 236,588 | 3.61 | 84 | -0.1606 % | 2,463.4 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.16 % | 4.39 % | 203,012 | 3.59 | 42 | -0.0805 % | 2,389.9 |
| FloatingReset | 2.64 % | 2.33 % | 300,105 | 4.40 | 5 | 0.0396 % | 2,463.8 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| ENB.PR.D | FixedReset | -2.02 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 22.49 Evaluated at bid price : 23.30 Bid-YTW : 4.43 % |
| TRP.PR.C | FixedReset | -1.63 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 21.43 Evaluated at bid price : 21.77 Bid-YTW : 4.01 % |
| ENB.PR.T | FixedReset | -1.63 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 22.57 Evaluated at bid price : 23.61 Bid-YTW : 4.44 % |
| ENB.PR.P | FixedReset | -1.46 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 22.56 Evaluated at bid price : 23.56 Bid-YTW : 4.46 % |
| ENB.PR.N | FixedReset | -1.44 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 22.76 Evaluated at bid price : 23.95 Bid-YTW : 4.50 % |
| SLF.PR.G | FixedReset | -1.44 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.92 Bid-YTW : 4.84 % |
| BNS.PR.Y | FixedReset | -1.27 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.30 Bid-YTW : 4.09 % |
| ENB.PR.H | FixedReset | -1.12 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 22.21 Evaluated at bid price : 22.86 Bid-YTW : 4.31 % |
| FTS.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | -1.09 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 22.33 Evaluated at bid price : 22.61 Bid-YTW : 5.45 % |
| BAM.PF.D | Perpetual-Discount | 1.05 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 19.30 Evaluated at bid price : 19.30 Bid-YTW : 6.38 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| FTS.PR.H | FixedReset | 68,088 | Scotia sold 11,100 to Nesbitt at 21.10, then crossed 30,000 at 21.00. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 21.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.00 Bid-YTW : 4.00 % |
| TD.PR.I | FixedReset | 59,626 | Scotia crossed 41,100 at 25.72; TD crossed 13,000 at the same price. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-07-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.71 Bid-YTW : 2.93 % |
| RY.PR.X | FixedReset | 59,087 | Scotia crossed 39,400 at 25.67. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-08-24 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.65 Bid-YTW : 3.02 % |
| BAM.PF.D | Perpetual-Discount | 53,403 | RBC bought 10,000 from CIBC at 19.50. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 19.30 Evaluated at bid price : 19.30 Bid-YTW : 6.38 % |
| BAM.PF.C | Perpetual-Discount | 44,942 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 19.16 Evaluated at bid price : 19.16 Bid-YTW : 6.36 % |
| ENB.PR.J | FixedReset | 44,320 | Recent new issue. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-12-16 Maturity Price : 23.15 Evaluated at bid price : 25.00 Bid-YTW : 4.30 % |
| There were 57 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| PWF.PR.P | FixedReset | Quote: 22.70 – 23.15 Spot Rate : 0.4500 Average : 0.3000 YTW SCENARIO |
| IAG.PR.F | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 25.42 – 25.82 Spot Rate : 0.4000 Average : 0.2531 YTW SCENARIO |
| MFC.PR.H | FixedReset | Quote: 25.75 – 26.10 Spot Rate : 0.3500 Average : 0.2429 YTW SCENARIO |
| BNS.PR.O | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 26.24 – 26.57 Spot Rate : 0.3300 Average : 0.2356 YTW SCENARIO |
| BNS.PR.Y | FixedReset | Quote: 23.30 – 23.64 Spot Rate : 0.3400 Average : 0.2480 YTW SCENARIO |
| CU.PR.E | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 22.50 – 23.01 Spot Rate : 0.5100 Average : 0.4213 YTW SCENARIO |