NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Treasurys, corporates and munis ended January on a high note as General Motors Financial Co. met with strong demand from investors Tuesday for a $1 billion sale in asset-backed securities. Month-end buyers spurred Treasury prices higher Tuesday, helping the market recover from overnight losses and end January with a bang on five consecutive positive sessions.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Bonds End The Month On A High Note
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Treasurys, corporates and munis ended January on a high note as General Motors Financial Co. met with strong demand from investors Tuesday for a $1 billion sale in asset-backed securities. Month-end buyers spurred Treasury prices higher Tuesday, helping the market recover from overnight losses and end January with a bang on five consecutive positive sessions.
Commodity Ship Rates Off To A Terrible Start
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, fell for a 30th session in a row, rounding out the worst start to a year since the Baltic Exchange started publishing figures in 1985. The index slid 3.1 percent to 680, leaving it down 61 percent in January, according to the London-based exchange. The measure is at the lowest level since Dec. 9, 2008.
A Beginners Guide to Currency Spreads
Also known as Forex or FX for short, foreign exchange trading is one of the most widely traded markets in the world. However, currency spread betting allows traders to control a much larger position than their deposit would normally allow in the underlying market. City Index provides a beginner's guide to the benefits and dangers of spread betting currencies.
Currencies Forming Lower Highs
Month end flows are now behind us and, February kicks off with the currency market trying to decide whether it wants to continue to extend corrective gains against the buck, or of they are finally willing to relent to broader bullish US Dollar momentum. The key to our analysis remains the multi-week EUR/USD chart, which shows the market locked in a very well defined downtrend off the 2008 highs. As such, the current bounce is still only classified as corrective and a fresh medium-term lower top is sought out ahead of the next major downside extension towards our 2012 target by 1.2000.
RESEARCH PAPER: Beyond The Spark Spread Option - Fuel Switching
The spark spread is the theoretical gross margin of a gas-fired power plant from selling a unit of electricity, having bought the fuel required to produce this unit of electricity. All other costs (operation and maintenance, capital and other financial costs) must be covered from the spark spread. The term dark spread refers to the similarly defined difference between cash streams (spread) for coal-fired power plants. These indicators of power plant economics are useful for tracing energy markets. For operating or investment decisions published "spread" data are not applicable. Local market conditions, actual plant efficiencies and other plant costs have to be considered. The higher the dark spread the better, for the generator; an IPP with a dark spread of €15/MWh will be more profitable than a competitor with a dark spread of only €10/MWh.
Trading the spark spread
The spark spread represents the theoretical margin of electric power producers. Its understanding can reveal several speculative opportunities that traders can use to expand their market activity. There are several fundamental methods of transforming various energy forms into electrical energy. These include static electricity, electromagnetic induction, electrochemical effect, photoelectric effect, thermoelectric effect, piezoelectric effect and nuclear transformation. The electromagnetic induction method has the widest commercial application today.
Louis-Dreyfus Widow Takes Charge At Commodities Giant
When Margarita Louis-Dreyfus took her 13-year-old twins on a weeklong trip to Brazil for school break in October 2010, it wasn’t a beach-filled vacation. She and the boys donned coveralls and hard hats. Then they toured the ports, plantations and juice factories of their namesake company, Louis Dreyfus Holding BV, in a crash course on the world’s biggest cotton and rice trader.
Export Sales Drive Ethanol and Corn Up
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Ethanol futures gained in Chicago, paring a third monthly decline, as corn rose on signs of increased export demand. Futures advanced after the Agriculture Department reported that export sales of corn jumped 26 percent last week from the previous week. Ethanol in the U.S. is made mostly from the grain.
Natural Gas Free Falls 8%
Natural-gas futures plummeted 7.7%—the biggest one-day percentage decline in more than 18 months—as traders were disappointed natural-gas producers hadn't announced further cutbacks due to low prices. Tuesday's drop wiped out a week's worth of gains, built on the back of news major producers including Chesapeake Energy would cut output to alleviate the market's oversupply of the fuel. The robust supplies were a key factor in futures prices falling to a nearly 10-year low earlier this month.
MF Global Bankruptcy Trustee Website
On November 22, 2011, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn approved the Trustee's request for approval of a claims process for former customers of MF Global Inc. The Trustee will now establish separate, parallel customer claims processes: one for MF Global Inc.'s commodity future customers, and the other for its securities customers, as well as an additional claims process for MF Global Inc.'s general creditors.
20M Homes Powered By Silver
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Record industrial demand for silver and resurging investor interest is diminishing a supply surplus, driving the metal used in everything from solar panels to batteries into its best start to a year in almost three decades.
Wheat and corn no longer an item- IT'S OVER!
The Chicago Board of Trade (CBT) March wheat contract price is about $0.16 above the CBT March corn contract price. The CBT December 2012 wheat contract is $1.72 above the CBT December corn contract price. Wheat prices are not currently dependent on corn prices and are not expected to be dependent on corn prices during the 2012/13 marketing year.
Night-trading in the E-Mini S&P - The Trend Is Your Friend
Last week the March 2012 E-Mini S&P opened at 1307.50 and closed the week at 1312.50. That is 37.75 points higher than the Jan. 3 open of 1274.75.
Technically speaking: Is the top in on oil?
- March Crude started this week out heading lower as the fact that it failed to close above the $100 threshold during an entire week for the first time since November may have been processed by many of the crude traders.
- The sideways action in this market is bound to run out soon and with the heavy selling above 101-102, this market looks ready to make its first serious attempt at $95.
Gasoline a "bull trap"?
A gas price horror story is evident at pumps across America as the price, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), hit the highest level since Halloween. The EIA reports the national average retail price of regular gasoline increased 5¢ per gallon last week, bringing the national average to a whopping $3.439 per gallon. The last time prices went this high demand fell to an 11-year low. Oil prices that are stubbornly staying around $100 a barrel, along with planned and unplanned maintenance at many refineries, is adding to this nightmare on Main Street. Will gas prices stay high forever or are we doomed to a year were $5.00 gas is a simple reality. Well actually that price per gallon is not necessarily in the cards. Because of weak demand we are seeing some refiners go into maintenance early. In other words, because of warm weather and weak demand, the turnaround spike that we normally see in late March and April is with us now. Currently gasoline prices are 33.8¢, or 11%, above where last time users and drivers turned away from the pump.
Coal Fuels a Fight
PORTLAND, Ore.—Environmentalists who scuttled development of a coal-export terminal in Washington last year are back at it in Oregon, trying to keep two ports from becoming transit points for coal shipped to the Far East.
Gold and silver coins are being snapped up
Investors are loading up on gold and silver coins in what some say could be an early sign of a rally in precious-metal prices. In this case, individual investors may be ahead of professionals. After a steep decline in the value of gold and silver in the final month of last year, coin investors and collectors have been among the first to jump back into the markets and take advantage of what they see as bargain prices compared with the peaks of 2011.
Blackrock's Fisher says EU Banks still drifting
Fixed-income specialists sees plenty of problems in Europe, not the least of which is a banking system in disarray.
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