Well it looks to be a quiet economic day with no real consequential economic news being released. Obviously this doesn’t mean that markets will be quiet–plenty of stuff going on with banks and the debt ceiling to keep things interesting.
Equity futures are off today to the tune of ⅓% while interest rates are off a few basis points with the 10 year treasury yield at 3.48%–off of the close yesterday of 3.52%. Plus and minus 5 basis points is a meaningless move.
As mentioned yesterday I nibbled on the Pebblebrook Hotels 6.37% perpetual (PEB-G)–current yield of 8.48%. I had mentioned many times I was looking for a buy in the lodging REIT sector and this is just a small starter position. Today it is likely I will buy another lodging REIT preferred – I will let everyone know when I do that. I have a giant sized position in CDs and treasuries and these buys will help to start to balance the approximately 5% average on the conservative part of the portfolio.
Watching the community bankers a bit I see the prices still a bit wild—some up a buck–others down a buck. I want bunches but not until this ‘crisis’ settles down–how long can I be patient? We’ll see.