Speculators? net bearish bets on 30-year Treasury bond futures grew to a record high in the latest week, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday, potentially reflecting expectations of higher yields on longer-dated U.S. government bonds.
AM Best has downgraded the Financial Strength Rating to B+ from B++ and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to ?bbb-? from ?bbb? of American Sentinel Insurance Company. The ratings reflect American Sentinel?s balance sheet strength, which AM Best categorizes as adequate, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.
U.S. government bond yields posted their largest weekly gain since August, lifted by signs of economic recovery and the hopes for economic stimulus before or after the presidential election. The yield on the benchmark 10- year Treasury note reached as high as 0.87% in early trading Friday before settling at 0.84%, according to Tradeweb-- down slightly from 0.847% on Thursday. It had previously climbed for six straight sessions, reaching its highest level since early June.
S&P: * S&P SAYS OUTLOOK ON AZERBAIJAN REVISED TO NEGATIVE FROM STABLE, RATINGS AFFIRMED AT 'BB+' * S&P SAYS AZERBAIJAN OUTLOOK REVISED TO NEGATIVE ON RISING RISKS FROM MILITARY CONFLICT OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH; RATINGS AFFIRMED. * S&P SAYS NEGATIVE OUTLOOK ON AZERBAIJAN REFLECTS RISING RISKS TO FISCAL PERFORMANCE, EXTERNAL BALANCE SHEET, AND MACRO-FINANCIAL STABILITY.
Highlands Holdings Bond Issuer, Ltd., a Bermuda exempted company and Highlands Holdings Bond Co-Issuer, Inc., a Delaware corporation and direct, wholly owned subsidiary of the Bermuda Issuer announced today that they priced $500 million aggregate principal amount of 7.625% / 8.375% Senior Secured PIK Toggle Notes due 2025 at an issue price of 100.000% in an offering.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Oct. 23, 2020 ?IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones S.A. (IRS), Argentina's leading Real Estate company, informs that according to Resolution "A" 7106 of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic that restricts access to the Foreign Exchange Market to purchase US dollars for the payment of foreign currency-denominated debt securities principal maturing between October 15, 202...
The U.S. Treasury market still runs the risk of abrupt freezes in liquidity like the one seen in March and April, as the COVID-19 pandemic roiled the financial system, a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Market Committee said on Friday.
The U.S. Treasury market still runs the risk of abrupt freezes in liquidity like the one seen in March and April, as the COVID-19 pandemic roiled the financial system, a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Market Committee said on Friday.
* FITCH AFFIRMS ICELAND AT 'A'; OUTLOOK NEGATIVE. * FITCH SAYS CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC HAS RESULTED IN SHARP DETERIORATION IN ICELAND'S NEAR-TERM GROWTH AND PUBLIC FINANCE OUTLOOK Source text for Eikon:
The city needs to continue meeting pension commitments and moving to structural budget balance despite the coronavirus pandemic, the rating agency said.
Municipals held firm Friday as the market gets set for another week of hefty supply. Citi anticipates $550 billion in 2021, led by surge in taxable issuance.
The following are forecasts for next week's U.S. data from a survey compiled by The Wall Street Journal. DATE TIME RELEASE PERIOD CONSENSUS PREVIOUS Monday 1000 New Home Sales Sep 1.02 M 1.01 M-- percent change Sep +1.0% +4.8% 1030 Dallas Fed Mfg Svy Oct N/A 13.6 Tuesday 0830 Durable Goods Orders Sep +0.3% +0.5%* 0900 S&P/Case-Shiller 20- City Aug N/A +3.9% HPI Y/Y 1000 Consumer Confidence Oct 102.3 101.8 1000 Richmond Fed Mfg Svy Oct N/A 21 Thursday 0830 Jobless Claims Oct 24 783 K 787...
The board, at the first quarterly board meeting of its 2021 fiscal year, also voted to split its existing Nominating and Governance Committee into two.
U.S. government bond yields were on track to end the week near multimonth highs, lifted by signs of economic recovery and the hopes for economic stimulus before or after the presidential election. The 10- year yield, which reached as high as roughly 0.87% in early trading, has climbed for six straight sessions, buoyed by investors' expectations that the economy is rebounding and lawmakers will eventually reach a deal to help individuals and companies weather the pandemic...
Guzman & Company, a Coral Gables-based investment bank and brokerage firm, is honored to participate in the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, a program enacted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to provide liquidity for the corporate bond market.
JERSEY CITY, N.J., Oct. 23, 2020 The Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation announced today the preliminary results of its previously announced offer to exchange any and all of its existing LIBOR Bonds listed in the table below for corresponding new LIBOR Bonds listed in the table below. ?. The Exchange Offer expired on October 22, 2020 at 5:00 p.m., New York City time.
Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan on Wednesday repeated his forecast for the U.S. economy to shrink about 2.5% this year and grow a strong 3.5% next year, adding that he expects the pandemic to continue to impact daily life well into next year.
Fitch cut Morocco's credit rating to 'junk' on Friday, blaming the coronavirus for savaging the north African country's finances. The one-notch cut to BB+ from BBB- is a painful one for the government as it means that two of three main agencies now grade it in a higher-risk category that can lead to higher borrowing costs.
Central banks were among the biggest buyers of European common debt this week, signaling growing trust that the euro will hold its own through the pandemic. The European Commission-- the European Union's executive arm-- issued its first wave of common debt to finance its coronavirus-relief programs Tuesday. It raised EUR17 billion, equivalent to $20 billion, from the sale of 10- year and 20- year bonds.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced on Friday that it selected additional counterparties to support the commercial paper funding facility and the secondary market corporate credit facility as needed. Read more on the New York Fed's website https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/news/markets/2020/20201023.
* Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.2%; S&P 500 up 0.4% * U.S. Treasury yields hit 4-month highs. * European stocks boosted by strong Q3 earnings. * Britain, EU meet for Brexit talks. * Graphic: 2020 asset performance http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaDPgn. * Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh. By Matt Scuffham.
As chief executive of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in the 1980 s, John Creedon launched MetLife (MET) blimps and adopted Snoopy and other Peanuts characters to enliven the company's ads. He also embraced the trend of creating financial supermarkets and denounced the wave of leveraged buyouts that were devaluing corporate bonds held by MetLife (MET) and other insurers. Creedon oversaw a move into sales of mutual funds alongside insurance and the 1985 acquisition of the Century 21...
Overall business activity in the U.S. quickened its expansion pace in October, rising at the fastest rate for 20 months and business optimism improving markedly, preliminary data from IHS Markit showed Friday. The flash reading for the U.S. Composite Output Index came in at 55.5 in October, up from the 54.3 registered in September.
Argentina's economy minister Martin Guzman on Friday vowed to maintain a slow rate of currency devaluation despite rising pressure on the peso and tumbling foreign reserves.
U.S. business activity increased to a 20-month high in October, but the pace of new business growth and new orders eased slightly amid the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and caution ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. Data firm IHS Markit said on Friday its flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, rose to a reading of 55.5 this month.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday that interest rates are still high and must fall further for people to take out loans and help the economy recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking at a regular news conference, Lopez Obrador said the economy was making up ground lost in the pandemic, but that the country was in a "crisis situation".
Brazil's balance of payments position with the rest of the world improved in September, figures showed on Friday, as the sixth current account surplus in a row helped narrow the 12-month accumulated deficit to its smallest in more than two years.
U.S. stocks ticked higher Friday, as investors put the final debate of the 2020 election in the rearview mirror and awaited fresh data on the manufacturing and services sectors. The S&P 500 edged up 0.2%, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.. 3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 64 points, or 0.3%. Money managers say stocks are likely to lack clear direction in the coming weeks as they avoid placing big bets ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields
rose hit four-month highs on Friday and the yield curve
steepened on hopes that U.S. lawmakers are close to striking a
deal on new fiscal stimulus.
The Canadian dollar edged higher
against its U.S. counterpart on Friday, as investors welcomed
signs of progress on a U.S. coronavirus relief package and some
domestic economic indicators were ...
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday that interest rates are still high and need to fall further in order for people to take out loans. "Interest rates remain high," Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference.
SAO PAULO--Brazil recorded a current-account surplus of $2.3 billion in September from a surplus of $3.7 billion in August, the country's central bank said Friday. The 12- month current-account deficit reached $20.7 billion in month, from $25.7 billion the month before, the bank said. The 12- month current-account deficit was equal to 1.37% of gross domestic product, versus 1.66% of GDP in the previous month.
Brazil posted a current account surplus of $2.3 billion in September, the central bank said on Friday, the sixth consecutive monthly surplus but less than the $3 billion forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.
New York's mayor is shifting $466 million to the current fiscal year?s capital budget to tackle affordable housing needs to offset some of his coronavirus-related cuts.
Brazil's IPCA-15 consumer price index rose 0.94% in the month to mid-October, statistics agency IBGE said on Friday, the highest this year and the highest for any October since 1995 as food prices continued to tick higher. The monthly rate was higher than the 0.81% median forecast in a Reuters poll and more than double the previous month's 0.45% rise.
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh. * Graphic: Trade-weighted sterling since Brexit vote http://tmsnrt.rs/2hwV9Hv. By Elizabeth Howcroft. The pound fell against the dollar and euro on Friday after the UK Purchasing Managers' Index fell to a four-month low, but was still set to end the week up, after a new phase of intense Brexit talks restarted.
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association?s Monthly Leasing and Finance Index, which reports economic activity from 25 companies representing a cross section of the $900 billion equipment finance sector, showed their overall new business volume for September was $8.7 billion, down 13 percent year-over-year from new business volume in September 2019.
MOSCOW--The Russian central bank kept its key interest rate at a record low as a swift rise in coronavirus cases has clouded the economic outlook and volatility in the Russian ruble has increased ahead of the U.S. election. The bank on Friday held its benchmark rate at 4.25%, following several cuts earlier this year that drove the rate to a post-Soviet low. It said in a statement that it would consider further cuts at upcoming meetings.
Consumer confidence in Brazil fell in October for the first time in six months, a survey indicated on Friday, with persistent worries over the COVID-19 pandemic weighing heavily and suggesting that the economy's recovery may be losing steam.
In general the bond market is volatile, and fixed income securities carry interest rate risk. (As interest rates rise, bond prices usually fall, and vice versa. This effect is usually more pronounced for longer-term securities.) Fixed income securities also carry inflation risk and credit and default risks for both issuers and counterparties. Unlike individual bonds, most bond funds do not have a maturity date, so avoiding losses caused by price volatility by holding them until maturity is not possible.
Lower-quality debt securities generally offer higher yields, but also involve greater risk of default or price changes due to potential changes in the credit quality of the issuer. Any fixed income security sold or redeemed prior to maturity may be subject to loss.
Before investing, consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Contact Fidelity for a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully.
Publication Date