Pre-migration untagged articles

NY bonuses are bad. Really?

The US commercial paper market faces the refinancing of $243bn of 90 day commercial paper between January 27 and February 3, as paper sold to the Federal Reserve’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF) at its inception reaches maturity.

An upcoming wave of redemptions of Icelandic króna bonds is beginning to cause worries about the country’s offshore exchange rate. Since the collapse of Iceland’s major banks in September and a subsequent International Monetary Fund bail-out, the currency is no longer freely convertible and may be put under further pressure as Ikr269bn of Eurobonds start maturing this year. Ikr110bn matures before the end of March, according to data company Dealogic.

The Bank of England yesterday confirmed it will purchase high quality UK assets in an effort to bring more liquidity to the credit markets.

Barclays Capital on Monday published an open letter from its group chief executives, Marcus Agius and John Varley in a bid to halt the slide of Barclays’ share price, which had at that point dropped from around 150p at the start of 2009 to under 50p.

BNP Paribas announced this week that it expects to post a net loss of Eu1.4bn for the fourth quarter of 2008 as a result of the difficult trading environment of the last three months of the year.

Two bond issues this week underscored the renewed technical strength of the US high grade bond market. Investors flocked to the $500m 7.125% 10 year bond from Entergy Texas and the $500m 7.25% 10 year from The Washington Post.

John Thain hit back today at suggestions that Merrill Lynch paid 2008 bonuses a month early without telling its new owners at Bank of America, and that the acquiring firm was kept in the dark over the extent of losses and writedowns at Merrill. In an email to senior staff he said that both the timing and composition of the discretionary bonus pool — 41% down on 2007 and less than the amount agreed under the merger agreement — was determined together with Bank of America.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the market...

--Bernie McElroy, v.p. finance and treasurer for Pep Boys, on the effect the Wachovia/Wells Fargo merger had on their commitments to the company's credit facility.

The following charts show the top five advancers and decliners in terms of % moves in the loan, bond and credit default swap markets for the previous week. Data provided by Markit Group.