Hats off, again, to the medical profession!
As national medical, scientific, public health and patient organizations, we call for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ensure the health of the American people.
Forcing high-level CDC expert leaders to turn their back on decades of sound science to meet Kennedy’s agenda puts us all at risk. This final exclamation point on a term defined by repeated efforts to undermine science and public health definitively leaves Americans less safe in a multitude of ways:
…
We are gravely concerned that American people will needlessly suffer and die as a result of policies that turn away from sound interventions. After careful consideration, we insist on Kennedy’s resignation to restore the integrity, credibility and science-driven mission of HHS and all its agencies. Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue, not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe. We are speaking out because protecting public health is our responsibility as physicians, scientists and patient advocates. It is also the responsibility of our elected officials, and we call for their support at this critical moment to protect the health of the nation. It is time to reverse course and begin rebuilding the public health infrastructure overseen by CDC. Kennedy has proven himself unwilling and ill-prepared to lead that effort.Thank you,
Infectious Diseases Society of America
[20 other signatory organizations]
This follows the IDSA’s commentary on the Monarez firing and consequent resignations discussed August 28:
The mass resignations of CDC expert leaders present a clear and present danger to Americans of all ages and leave our nation extremely vulnerable to a wide range of public health threats from outbreaks to bioterror attacks. As we near respiratory virus season, it is imperative that our country have expert public health leadership for effective surveillance, communications and responses.
This loss of highly experienced CDC leadership is the latest devastating result of the Administration’s sustained attacks on public health, and it absolutely must be the last. It is time for fundamental changes and a return to evidence-based policy. The Administration’s current trajectory for destroying the public health system is reckless and cannot continue.
The organizations have more backbone than an entire caucus of Republicans.
Meanwhile, the non-surreal world braces for tomorrow’s jobs number:
New metrics released Thursday showed that first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose to an 11-week high; that private-sector businesses sharply reined in their hiring last month; and that last month was the worst August for layoff announcements since the pandemic and, before that, the Great Recession.
…
The latest data tees up an August jobs report that, when released Friday morning, is expected to show another month of tepid job gains. Economists have forecast that the economy added 80,000 jobs last month, which would be a slight increase from the slower-than-expected 73,000 net gain in July.
I’ve added a note about the Business Development Bank to yesterday’s post about OSFI.
| 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 | 6.69 % | 7.11 % | 38,184 | 13.34 | 1 | 0.3659 % | 2,459.7 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.2511 % | 4,667.5 |
| Floater | 6.51 % | 6.87 % | 49,031 | 12.62 | 3 | 0.2511 % | 2,689.9 |
| OpRet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.2653 % | 3,639.9 |
| SplitShare | 4.81 % | 4.57 % | 58,866 | 3.42 | 6 | 0.2653 % | 4,346.8 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.2653 % | 3,391.5 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.50 % | 4.29 % | 69,083 | 0.08 | 3 | -0.1059 % | 3,069.9 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.58 % | 5.68 % | 43,869 | 14.32 | 28 | 0.1099 % | 3,368.9 |
| FixedReset Disc | 5.91 % | 6.20 % | 118,496 | 13.38 | 32 | -0.0753 % | 3,032.3 |
| Insurance Straight | 5.46 % | 5.47 % | 53,746 | 14.62 | 18 | 0.8015 % | 3,314.6 |
| FloatingReset | 5.15 % | 4.26 % | 44,424 | 0.15 | 1 | 0.0396 % | 3,811.0 |
| FixedReset Prem | 5.66 % | 5.09 % | 119,411 | 2.44 | 21 | 0.0093 % | 2,628.2 |
| FixedReset Bank Non | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0753 % | 3,099.6 |
| FixedReset Ins Non | 5.37 % | 5.56 % | 68,606 | 14.24 | 15 | -1.6937 % | 2,986.1 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| IFC.PR.A | FixedReset Ins Non | -23.76 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 17.01 Evaluated at bid price : 17.01 Bid-YTW : 7.04 % |
| SLF.PR.G | FixedReset Ins Non | -3.27 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 18.05 Evaluated at bid price : 18.05 Bid-YTW : 5.98 % |
| IFC.PR.E | Insurance Straight | -2.47 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 23.42 Evaluated at bid price : 23.70 Bid-YTW : 5.58 % |
| ENB.PR.N | FixedReset Disc | -1.88 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 22.69 Evaluated at bid price : 23.50 Bid-YTW : 6.20 % |
| MFC.PR.F | FixedReset Ins Non | -1.16 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 17.86 Evaluated at bid price : 17.86 Bid-YTW : 5.96 % |
| BN.PR.B | Floater | -1.08 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 12.79 Evaluated at bid price : 12.79 Bid-YTW : 6.93 % |
| PWF.PR.K | Perpetual-Discount | 1.38 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 21.83 Evaluated at bid price : 22.07 Bid-YTW : 5.67 % |
| CU.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | 1.49 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 21.06 Evaluated at bid price : 21.06 Bid-YTW : 5.38 % |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | 1.72 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 14.23 Evaluated at bid price : 14.23 Bid-YTW : 6.16 % |
| GWO.PR.Y | Insurance Straight | 1.86 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 20.86 Evaluated at bid price : 20.86 Bid-YTW : 5.40 % |
| GWO.PR.M | Insurance Straight | 1.91 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2025-10-04 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.11 Bid-YTW : -4.52 % |
| ENB.PF.A | FixedReset Disc | 1.95 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 21.65 Evaluated at bid price : 21.97 Bid-YTW : 6.43 % |
| MFC.PR.C | Insurance Straight | 1.97 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 21.52 Evaluated at bid price : 21.78 Bid-YTW : 5.17 % |
| CU.PR.G | Perpetual-Discount | 2.19 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 21.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.00 Bid-YTW : 5.40 % |
| GWO.PR.Q | Insurance Straight | 2.66 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 22.88 Evaluated at bid price : 23.15 Bid-YTW : 5.56 % |
| PVS.PR.M | SplitShare | 2.92 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2031-03-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.37 Bid-YTW : 4.87 % |
| IFC.PR.I | Insurance Straight | 6.52 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 24.17 Evaluated at bid price : 24.50 Bid-YTW : 5.60 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| FFH.PR.G | FixedReset Prem | 289,600 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2025-10-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.12 Bid-YTW : 4.67 % |
| ENB.PF.C | FixedReset Disc | 68,500 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 21.26 Evaluated at bid price : 21.26 Bid-YTW : 6.58 % |
| BN.PR.K | Floater | 59,300 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 12.90 Evaluated at bid price : 12.90 Bid-YTW : 6.87 % |
| CIU.PR.A | Perpetual-Discount | 50,100 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 20.70 Evaluated at bid price : 20.70 Bid-YTW : 5.60 % |
| ENB.PR.B | FixedReset Disc | 39,500 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 20.19 Evaluated at bid price : 20.19 Bid-YTW : 6.64 % |
| BN.PF.A | FixedReset Disc | 28,527 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2055-09-04 Maturity Price : 23.37 Evaluated at bid price : 24.99 Bid-YTW : 6.07 % |
| There were 12 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| See TMX DataLinx: ‘Last’ != ‘Close’ and the posts linked therein for an idea of why these quotes are so horrible. | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| IFC.PR.A | FixedReset Ins Non | Quote: 17.01 – 22.40 Spot Rate : 5.3900 Average : 2.9178 YTW SCENARIO |
| BN.PF.J | FixedReset Prem | Quote: 25.11 – 26.11 Spot Rate : 1.0000 Average : 0.6306 YTW SCENARIO |
| CU.PR.G | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 21.00 – 22.30 Spot Rate : 1.3000 Average : 0.9535 YTW SCENARIO |
| BN.PR.B | Floater | Quote: 12.79 – 13.47 Spot Rate : 0.6800 Average : 0.3880 YTW SCENARIO |
| CIU.PR.A | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 20.70 – 22.25 Spot Rate : 1.5500 Average : 1.2678 YTW SCENARIO |
| IFC.PR.E | Insurance Straight | Quote: 23.70 – 24.40 Spot Rate : 0.7000 Average : 0.4405 YTW SCENARIO |