Equity markets are quiet at this moment, but it is very likely that this will change in an 30 minutes when economic news hits.
The 10 year treasury is up 4-5 basis points to about 3.54.%
At 7:30 a.m. we have the PCE (personal consumption expenditures price index) announced. The Federal Reserve claims this is one of their favorite inflation indicators. The forecast is for a year over year number of 4.4% versus 4.7% last month.
After the market closed yesterday plenty of earnings were released--including one I had been waiting for which was PacWest Bancorp (PACW). Of all the regional/community banker earnings that I have skimmed PACW had the distinction of the poorest earnings as they took a number of write downs for business segments they are exiting–so I will need a lower price on their 7.75% fixed rate reset preferred (PACWP) to consider an investment.
Yesterday continued the ‘green streak’ for preferreds and baby bonds–just barely green, but up just the same. No activity for me–probably won’t be any today either.
Interesting factoid….even with the 9%+ rally in the $14B behemoth preferred ETF PFF in January, the fund has had $56M in outflows this month.
PCE came in as expected, 4.4