Interest rates were trading a bit lower this morning and then took a 5-6 basis point tumble when the ISM Manufacturing numbers were released at 9 a.m. (central). Stocks have been on a moderately slow tumble ever since the release of the data.
It isn’t often that both interest rates and equities would be moving in the direction that one would expect them to move–I guess at least for today ‘all news’ isn’t good news.
Preferreds and baby bonds are just a little green–a very little. The weight of the equity drop (.6% to 1% depending on the index) is serving to hold prices down in spite of the large drop in the 10 year treasury yield.
I noted over the weekend that Applied UV (AUVI) filed for bankruptcy–the company had sold a 10.5% preferred issue in 7/2021. I wrote at the time that investors should do ‘deep due diligence on this one as it had only revenue of $2 million in their last quarter‘. The eventual BK of this one was pretty predictable.
Nothing for me to do today–I took my nibble on the new NewTekOne baby bond last week at $24.75 and I see it is now trading at $25.03 so I won’t be doing any adding to that position for now (or maybe ever–we’ll see).
I often talk to small business owners in my daily routine. MA/NH area. Things are really hit or miss in this economy. Some days they are busy and other days they are slow wondering where everyone is. It is kind of evening out for them to a meh year at this stage. Definitely not as busy after covid. It just makes me wonder if things are weaker then stats are showing us for many sectors. A few are doing well but that does not represent the full economy.
Not hard evidence. Just my current impression.