NZ hiked rates last night. Brazil too? Oz had a very strong employment report. Things are motoring along in some places on the planet.
Its shaping up as one of 'those' days. Interesting to see the way things come together ... - late yesterday, talk of BP filing BK sends its shares and the broader market way down, GS turns way bearish on the Euro. then ... - overnight, China releases some BS stronger than expected econ numbers, Oz has a strong employment report, NZ hikes rates - some Chinese bureaucrat puts out a positive statement regarding China's euro holdings - Trichet holds a presser in which he mouths some pablum about the Euro being a solid currency (what did folks expect him to say) Stock futures and currencies go through the roof ... My guess is that this is one of those straight up days in which the market hangs around +1-1.5% all day and then rises another 1% in the last hour. If I'm wrong and stocks/currencies can't hold these gains, then this market is in worse shape than even I thought.
Trichet Refuses to Give Further Details on Asset Purchases http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=avd5isoM8.08 I suspect he is not buying bunds
I have been on IB checking out pricing on eurodollar puts. On the option screen, there are a number of 'trading classes' available. I assume the plain vanilla option that I'm thinking about is the 'GE' class. However, there is a GE0 class and the pricing on this option is FAR different than for the GE class - the Dec10 99.00 put trades at around 0.70 in the GE0 class, but just around 0.15 in the GE class. Why would the pricing be so different?
GE0 is what's known as a mid-curve. Specifically, in the case you're looking at, you got a mid-curve 99 strike put that expires arnd the same time (13th of Dec vs 10th of Dec) as the regular, front one, but the underlying for the mid-curve is red Dec contract (GEZ1), rather than the front Dec (GEZ0). EDIT: I also should mention that another key difference is that mid-curves are physically-settled, unlike the regular options, which are cash-settled.
"POSITION: Governor, Oesterreichische Nationalbank AGE: 65 STANCE: Unknown REMARK (10/06/10): "Bond markets were distorted, programme corrected distortions in specific markets" VIEW: Nowotny eager to define the purpose of the ECB's bond purchase scheme which for all intents and purposes is finite. Trichet earlier said the plan was temporary but it was appropriate to continue in a bid to iron-out distortions" Looks like their criteria is, if the market doesnt like, we buy it