Hints and tips:
...Bonds issued by Illinois, New Jersey, New York’s transit authority and even the US territory of Puerto Rico have rallied since the election....
...Stocks [are] looking ugly at the moment, but the Fed is still there to keep things under control,” said Andrew Brenner, head of international fixed income at National Alliance Securities....
...It is one of the best fixed-income opportunities in the world.”...
...Customer income also very strong at $249m; however, customers are winning of late and total revenue therefore said to be £102.5m....
...The Pimco chief executive talks to the FT’s Owen Walker about his three years at the helm and rejuvenating the fixed income firm....
...Not insignificant; say a bit more than the face value of Puerto Rico’s debt. There are several ways to make money with an MSR....
...Larry De Shon, the company’s chief executive, said the lowered outlook came in response to several major hurricanes that blew through the US and Puerto Rico, causing “massive devastation”....
...That could be a nod to recent events in Puerto Rico, where customers were caught out after using loans secured against portfolios of government bonds to buy more government bonds....
...The results were muddied by the impact from the severe hurricanes that ravaged Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida, with all four of the department store chains claiming the storms had hurt sales in the quarter...
...To compound matters, Baxter, the largest manufacturer, has struggled to recover after Hurricane Maria battered its production facilities in Puerto Rico....
...The division employs more than 100,000 workers in its stores across the US and Puerto Rico....
...The company disclosed late on Friday that losses from hurricanes that affected the southern US and Puerto Rico and from an earthquake in Mexico had tipped its insurance underwriting business into a $1.4bn...
...Waymo, the self-driving car unit, has launched in its sixth state, testing cars in the winter weather in Michigan, while Project Loon is sending air balloons over the hardest hit parts of Puerto Rico to...
...were being propelled higher by “refugees” from fixed income markets who were being starved of yield....
...“These are undeniably fixed-income-bearish statements, but we’ve had nothing but a rally.”...
...– From the NYT again: “The teachers’ pension fund in Puerto Rico looks very much like a legalized Ponzi scheme — one that might hold a warning for teachers across America....
...My own conclusion is that the fixed income and currency markets are still if anything understating the chances of a rise in rates at the end of this year; and the equity market seems not to care....
...Even many people on the fixed income buyside have a hard time caring about their hedge fund colleagues....
...You have stage payments, because they won't pay you all the money upfront in case you go off to Puerto Rico and don't build the place....
...So far these creditors, including about 1,000 former fixed-income bankers who were laid off with only the statutory minimum pay-off by administrators, are thought to be owed £100m and have been paid just...
...The key driver of the arrivals is the economic crisis in Puerto Rico, which has lost 9 per cent of its population over the past decade....
...Puerto Rico’s so-called Walmart tax is dead (for now)....
...Last week policymakers passed a bill that will allow Puerto Rico to restructure its debts in US federal courts....
...By some counts, the total number of parking spaces in the US cover an area the size of Puerto Rico. Designers and city planners are already salivating over what they could do with this reclaimed space....
...A full-blown default could push up borrowing costs for municipalities across the US, roughly three-quarters of US fixed-income investors have some exposure to Puerto Rico....
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