Either nothing happened today, or I was busy. One or the other.<\/p>\n
Well, I noticed one thing<\/a>:<\/p>\n The University of Toronto is the lone Canadian school to crack the top 20 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which many consider higher education\u2019s most influential global rating system. Queen\u2019s University, which had refused to submit data in past years, chose to participate and placed 173rd. The University of Ottawa was Canada\u2019s other new entrant, at 185th. Dalhousie University and Simon Fraser University both fell out of the top 200 after coming in 193rd and 199th respectively last year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts up 13bp, FixedResets winning 28bp, while DeemedRetractibles were down 11bp – the last being heavily influenced by SLF issues<\/a> which dominated the downside of the Performance Table. Volatility was quite good, but volume continued to be below average.<\/p>\n PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.53%, equivalent to 7.19% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long Corporates<\/a> continue to yield about 4.8% (maybe a little under) so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (also called the Seniority Spread) is now about 240bp, a sharp rise from the 215bp recorded on September 30<\/a>, due entirely to weakness in PerpetualDiscounts.<\/p>\n
…<\/b>
Two other flagship Canadian schools made noteworthy gains, with the University of British Columbia jumping to 22nd place from 30th, and McGill University rising to 28th from 35th.
…<\/b>
McMaster University (65), the University of Alberta (100) and the University of Montreal (104) all improved their standing, while the University of Victoria slipped from 130th to 177th after entering the top 200 for the first time last year.<\/p>\n\n
\n HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices<\/strong>
Values are provisional and are finalized monthly<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n Index<\/td>\n Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)<\/td>\nMedian
YTW<\/td>\nMedian
Average
Trading
Value<\/td>\nMedian
Mod Dur
(YTW)<\/td>\nIssues<\/td>\n Day’s Perf.<\/td>\n Index Value<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Ratchet<\/td>\n 0.00 %<\/td>\n 0.00 %<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 0.00<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n -1.3282 %<\/td>\n 1,934.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n FixedFloater<\/td>\n 0.00 %<\/td>\n 0.00 %<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 0.00<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n -1.3282 %<\/td>\n 2,909.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Floater<\/td>\n 3.72 %<\/td>\n 3.73 %<\/td>\n 53,090<\/td>\n 18.04<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n -1.3282 %<\/td>\n 2,088.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n OpRet<\/td>\n 4.86 %<\/td>\n 4.11 %<\/td>\n 57,129<\/td>\n 1.58<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n -0.0146 %<\/td>\n 2,435.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n SplitShare<\/td>\n 5.46 %<\/td>\n 1.79 %<\/td>\n 52,890<\/td>\n 0.40<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n -0.3157 %<\/td>\n 2,453.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Interest-Bearing<\/td>\n 0.00 %<\/td>\n 0.00 %<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 0.00<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n -0.0146 %<\/td>\n 2,227.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Perpetual-Premium<\/td>\n 5.73 %<\/td>\n 5.23 %<\/td>\n 110,508<\/td>\n 1.92<\/td>\n 13<\/td>\n 0.2489 %<\/td>\n 2,109.2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Perpetual-Discount<\/td>\n 5.45 %<\/td>\n 5.53 %<\/td>\n 110,067<\/td>\n 14.64<\/td>\n 17<\/td>\n 0.1321 %<\/td>\n 2,214.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n FixedReset<\/td>\n 5.18 %<\/td>\n 3.42 %<\/td>\n 204,884<\/td>\n 2.63<\/td>\n 61<\/td>\n 0.2821 %<\/td>\n 2,309.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Deemed-Retractible<\/td>\n 5.13 %<\/td>\n 4.65 %<\/td>\n 228,749<\/td>\n 6.04<\/td>\n 46<\/td>\n -0.1139 %<\/td>\n 2,168.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n