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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (16105)	11/17/2004 4:29:39 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Watch the Bond Market lewiscapital.net

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (16105)	11/17/2004 4:33:33 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

citybank bombed in argentina story.news.yahoo.com

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (16105)	11/17/2004 4:50:33 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Corporate Bond Feeding Frenzy Another snip from Brian Reynolds Background: Yesterday Brian posted an article about a junk rated company that was accessing the bond market to go deeper in debt for the sole purpose of buying back its stock. Junk bond investors are at a feeding Frenzy. Brian cautions that this can go on for years or it could be over soon. The point was NOT that this was the end. It may or may not be. Another Snip from Brian follows.......... The point was that bond investors have been engaged in such a feeding frenzy that this company was totally confident that they could access the junk market solely to weaken their balance sheet in order to boost their stock price. We said that they were probably correct in their assumption about their ability to access the capital. We had no idea just how correct they were. We thought they would wait awhile to let the headlines simmer down and fade from the consciousness of bond investors. Instead, this company roared into the bond market yesterday, borrowing $1.2 billion at a miniscule spread to Treasuries of just over 200 basis points. That's about 500 basis points narrower than this company would have been charged to access the bond market just a couple of years ago. Now, this company has an extra $1.2 billion war chest that can be used over the coming year(s) to either attempt to crush short-sellers who attempt to short breakdowns, or to reward traders who buy breakouts. That doesn’t mean that this company’s stock price is guaranteed to rise. If the fundamentals are lousy, it will eventually decline. But, it does raise the odds that its stock will go up. At a minimum, it means that bearish investors must pick their spots much more carefully than if there were not a potential $1.2 billion of not necessarily profit-maximizing buying power out there in this name. We’re still not identifying the company because we don’t want people to focus on this particular firm; we want people to focus on the fact that company after company has announced buybacks in recent months. We also don’t mean to imply that stock prices in general are guaranteed to go up for years; we remain vulnerable to corporate bond investors suddenly changing their minds about their willingness to fund buybacks. So far, though we see no sign of that, even after FNM’s news on Monday night. The longer this feeding frenzy in corporates goes on, though, the more money that will flow into corporate coffers that can be used for buybacks even after corporate bond investors shut off the spigot. With more than $150 billion in the till since Labor Day, there is a corporate war chest that can continue to be employed for buybacks for a long time to come.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (16105)	11/17/2004 6:24:19 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

From island.com: "Effective December 1, 2004, the NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock will transfer its listing to the NASDAQ National Market under the trading symbol QQQQ; however, the product will continue to be referred to as "QQQ". As a result, QQQ will no longer be subject to the ITS plan and its regulations, i.e., the de minimus and trade through rule." What is "the de minimus and trade through rule?"

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (16105)	11/17/2004 7:05:42 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 116555

Senate votes to raise debt limit by $800B Wednesday, November 17, 2004 11:46:14 PM afxpress.com WASHINGTON (AFX) -- The Senate voted 52-44 Wednesday to raise the federal debt ceiling by $800 billion. The House is expected to take up the measure Thursday. The federal government hit the $7.384 trillion debt limit on Oct. 14, forcing the Treasury Department to begin taking extraordinary actions to avoid breaching the limit