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There should be little doubt that a recession is either here already, or will be soon. I originally predicted (or should we just go ahead and say ‘guessed’) the 3rd or 4th quarter). As more than one reader has mentioned you just have to watch energy pr…

Well is the bottom in for now? I don’t really know–no one knows, but there is plenty of speculation by the talking heads expecting a 10% bounce in common stocks at this time–of course with the 6.5% bounce last week it may be near over. Last week the…

The final readings on consumer confidence for May were released today by the U of Michigan and the 50 reading was the lowest on record dating back to the mid 1970’s. While the consumer is crumbling under the weight of high energy prices and skyrocketin…

If it isn’t one thing it’s another–always something. So as income investors we watch interest rates–which are the primary driving force of share price movements. On the other hand both macro economic factors as well as company specific financials cer…

Mortgage REIT Two Harbors Investment (TWO) has announced the potential purchase of up to 5 million shares of the company’s preferred stock in open market transactions. As has been discussed on this site mREIT preferreds have been rocked hard by rising…

I am adding the 2 perpetual preferred stocks from Enstar Group (ESGR) to my watchlist. The 2 issues are the 7.00% Enstar Group perpetual non cumulative preferred (ESGRO) and the 7.00% Enstar Group fixed-to-floating rate perpetual non cumulative (ESGRP)…

Well let’s get another week going–the past number of months have been grueling for all investors and it is likely it will continue to be difficult. With the exception of a move down in oil prices last Friday we just are not seeing sustained, observabl…

So income issues have taken quite a shellacking this week–in particular perpetual preferreds. The temptation of conservative investors is to sell out and put the money in a mayo jar buried in the back yard–there are many investors which are already d…

mREIT preferred issues took a horrific hammering yesterday with almost every issue down at least 2% and many down 5-8%. Current yields in the 9%-10% area are very common. I keep a list of all the mREIT preferred issues here. While these yields are temp…

As I keep searching for good buys I keep coming back to some old standbys, but on occasion come upon something I had missed. Below are 3 issues that would be attractive to some who are looking for some price stability, although in some cases, maybe giv…

It is that time (or almost) we have waited for this week–time for a Fed Funds rate hike of some magnitude–how much we don’t know. Seems that either 50 or 75 basis points would be somewhat neutral. A rate hike of either 25 or 100 basis points would be…

Collateralized loan owners (CLO’s) Eagle Point Income (EIC) and Eagle Point Credit Company (ECC) have posted there normal monthly updates. The Eagle Point Income update can be found here. The Eagle Point Credit Company update can be found here. Both co…