daily notes...03 18

Housing market recovery is not yet at hand. ..Speculation on the way up had led to a glut of homes on the market that couldn's be easily worked through, lax lending standards and lower interest were to blame.. Wakeup! don't get caught up in the idea that housing market is recovering. Finance setctor continued to be haunted by subprime woes... Economy this weeks's interest rate decision will far outweight any other data. It will be on hold among the mixed data. One the one side, employment number is stable and CPI remains high. On the flip side, subprime issues may spread into broader economy. Bondholder Beware Among buyout boom, portfolios of High Grade bonds have been battered. Because some issuers have drafted "poison puts" narrowly, to be triggered by the sale of a controlling stake to a person or a firm - but not a group of firms. Many LBOS are done by a consortia of buyout shops. Some "poison puts" are less toxic than they thought. It is unlikely the companie that issued this debt had mishief in mind. But the debt market's uproar shows how heated its tug-of-water with buyouts shops over corproate value has become...