Interest Rates on Hold

Yesterday we got almost no movement in interest rates and resultantly pretty much no movement in income issue prices. The 10 year treasury yield closed at about 4.275%–and only traded a couple basis points (+/-) from there.

The average $25/share preferred and baby bond moved 2 cents higher yesterday–if you promised me that share prices would always move just 2 cents I would be very happy indeed. Of course prices will move, but typically we need a reason to move.

Today we have Fed yakkers, but the potential market moving event will be the release of the FOMC meeting minutes from January at 1 p.m. (central). While there probably are no major surprises in store for us in the minutes one can’t predict these things–algos will move equity markets, but interest rates are unlikely to move much. We’ll see.

As one might expect CD rates remain in the 5-5.35% area–very tasty still. I am once again about out of cash having bought some preferreds and rolling over a portion of proceeds from CD maturities. If rates maintain these levels I will be rolling over some money from maturities over the next 60 days—I can’t resist 5.3-5.4% for a portion of my funds.

For those watching the nightly ‘Headlines of Interest‘ I publish late in the day Monday through Thursday you probably saw the nice earnings from SiriusPoint (SPNT) – they can be read here. I hold a position in their 8% Resettable Preferred (SPNT-B) – it is highly likely I will add to this position in the month ahead (when I have cash). This reinsurance company is very well run–giving me confidence to add a few more shares.

Well let’s get the day rolling–expecting kind of quiet markets until 1 p.m. and then a little movement as FOMC minutes are released.