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A Little Market Excitement, But Little Damage

I look at the ticker after the market open today and see stocks off to another modest move higher–that’s all I need to see–I don’t watch minute by minute each day–maybe once per hour.

The next hour I look and the DJIA is off 373 points, so I did turn on the TV to see what was going on–as typically happens all I find is folks speculating on what happened–no one really knows. 1 explanation I heard was that traders all of a sudden realized stocks were out of sync with interest rates and gold prices–well no kidding–this has been the case for a very long time.

More interesting is that the 10 year treasury had dropped to 1.51%–off 6 basis points–we just keep getting closer and closer to all time lows in the 1.36% area–to me this is pretty scary–and I always take bond prices/yields more seriously than stock prices.

Oh well, checking our accounts I find no damage in the issues I own so I guess I am not too concerned about today’s action, but lower interest rates do concern me as I really wonder how long the economy can keep moving higher in the face of the Fed reducing liquidity and the unknown affects of the corona virus. Guess we will just have to keep watching.

I note today that the new Brookfield Renewable Partners 5.25% issue, which is trading under temporary ticker BKFRF is trading in the $25.70 area–fast out of the gate. I had an interest in this originally, but I am not paying this price–I am interested if it would tail off a bit in price.

Today we are seeing a little bounce back from yesterdays modest sell off in preferreds and baby bonds. Overall shares are up 5 cents with investment grade up 3 cents.

Adding Insult to Injury

While I shouldn’t have been surprised that Morgan Stanley is acquiring eTrade, it feels a bit like adding insult to injury.

All of us have had to fight to try to earn a decent return and after being with eTrade for around 25 years it now looks like I will have be concerned with how our accounts will be handled.

I have used eTrade as my ‘go to’ account given that our accounts at Fidelity are generally less versatile–i.e. not allowing us to buy certain securities.

Oh well–when the time comes I will just review all the commenters chat on which brokers they prefer. I guess Morgan Stanley will have to earn our business–too many changes–and in particular too many restrictions, and we will be gone.

Gladstone Land Reports Earnings for Q4 and 2019.

In case anyone has interest Gladstone Land (LAND) has reported earnings for the 4th quarter and year ending 12/31/2019.

The 10K can be read here.

I have an interest in this because of the term preferred shares currently outstanding (LANDP) which are trading at $25.71 right now. These shares have been callable since 2018 and will be redeemed 9/30/2021 (if not sooner).

Brookfield Renewable Partners LP Prices Preferred issue-Updated

Energy company Brookfield Renewable Partners LP (BEP) has priced the previously announced preferred unit offering.

The issue priced at 5.25%. It will become redeemable in 2025.

The issue is rated BBB- (low investment grade) by Standard and Poors.

The issue will trade immediately on the OTC Grey market under ticker BKFRF.

Update from earlier–BEP is a Bermuda company so there will be no Canadian withholding. But there will be a K-1 issued.