The S&P500 was off by as much as 1.5% during holiday shortened trading last week before closing at a record high – up about .4% on the week.
interest rates continued their move to lower yields. The 10 year treasury closed at 1.356% on Friday which was 7-8 basis points lower than the previous Friday. Never ending global demand as well as the Fed QE continues to push rates lower.
The Federal Reserve balance sheet moved higher by $19 billion on the week–always a stair step higher—down a week and up a couple weeks.
Last week $25/share preferred stocks and baby bonds moved a bit higher–up 9 cents/share. Investment grade moved 2 cents higher with banking preferreds up 4 cents. The average current yield is 6.21%.
Last week we had 3 new income issues priced.
RenaissanceRE Holdings (RNR) priced a new 4.20% non cumulative perpetual preferred. The issue is trading now on the OTC grey market under ticker RNRRP (changed from the ticker shown below) and closed on Friday at $25.41.
Affiliated Managers (AMG) sold a new issue of subordinated notes with a coupon of 4.20%. Being a debt issue there is no OTC grey market trading and this issue is not yet being exchange traded.
Lastly coal company Ramaco Resources (METC) sold a new issue of Senior Notes with a coupon of 9%. There will be no OTC grey market trading. the pricing term sheet can be read here.
Schwab is reporting that PSA-D has been called for July 20… don’t remember seeing that here yet… and I thought its earliest call was August 1, so I’m not sure if we should trust Schwab there… Anyway, FYI
With the METCL listing, is that correct that the offering is 1.2 million shares with an over allotment of 1.8 million?
180k overallotment
Fidelity analysts are bullish on METC, which does not pay any dividend. Difficult to forecast the price of METCL. I will not touch RNR note based on RNR-E 5.375% note trading history. Unlikely it would be called, not the highest one. Then RNR-E was trading flat throughout its inception. Sometimes, when the issuer insists on all the rights, the market just go with some other names. I did pick up just 300 shares of CMS-C. So far so good mainly because of the good reputation of CMS. AMG could be okay. Then it is a note, not QDI. Who knows. My recent bet is on FATBY, following Gridbird. Some of the eREIT common could be okay, but no bargains. Thanks Tim.
hi John — I don’t see a FATBY but do see FATBP yielding a little over 9% is that the one you are talking about? Does look a bit interesting for higher risk portion of portfolio. thx
Thanks furcal–will correct that–wild fingers I guess.