Midday Commentary: Preferreds firm as week opens, but liquidity thin on upcoming holiday

By Stephanie N. Rotondo

Phoenix, July 1 - The beginning of the third quarter was "very quiet" for the preferred stock market, according to a trader.

"It's going to be dead this whole week," he said Monday, pointing to Thursday's Fourth of July holiday. Because of the holiday, the market will close early on Wednesday and will reopen on Friday, though the trader speculated that many players would remain out on the last trading day of the week.

"There's no real news pushing preferreds back up," the trader added, but up they were regardless. The trader said he expected the strength to remain in the market throughout the week, even with the upcoming holiday.

Still, he commented that the market "may not get back to the levels they were three weeks ago," but firm they would be.

"I'm guessing there won't be any deals," he noted, again noting the holiday.

In secondary dealings, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferreds continued to be active. The paper was boosted Monday by news that Citigroup Inc. had reached a $968 million settlement deal with Fannie to tie up unresolved claims on 3.7 million high-risk mortgage loans.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.