To: Hawkmoon who wrote (3444 ) 3/14/2001 4:28:32 PM From: John Pitera Read Replies (1) | Respond to Hi Ron, I'm not sure what the USD does in the next several weeks. we've seen a correlation between the USDhuge euro sell-order from a US mutual fund to the tune of about 2 bln euros. As we mentioned earlier, European stagflation concerns are starting to garner a lot of attention, particularly when considering the inflation-obsession of the ECB. For our part, we would continue to argue that ECB hawkishness may be a positive for Treasuries, as it will keep pressure on the euro and cap the upside in regional fixed-income, a dynamic that will definitely deter global flight to quality interest------HOWEVER, debt between April 2000 and February 2001 totaled Y23.614 tln, surpassing the current annual record of Y15.182 tln in fiscal year 1998-9. Of particular interest, and in line with all of the concerns surrounding the banking sector, bankruptcies caused by cautious bank lending rose to 26 in February from 16 in January . Finally, we would note that 285 companies went under in February despite the fact that they had government-guaranteed private bank loans. This number comes on the back of a 284 increase in January.-------
