Markets are locked and loaded with the:
- Treasury Secretary Geithner’s rescue plan announcement coming at 10:00 am CST,
- Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee around high noon,
- and the vote on the stimulus package due around 1:00 CST.
Geithner’s baby is about 1.5 trillion, aimed at buying securities backed by commercial real estate, credit card securities, car loan securities, another 100 billion for capital injections in waffling banks, and on and on. The stimulus package is in the neighborhood of 820 billion and touting the creation and/or retention of 4 million jobs.
Smells more like bacon to me. One way or the other, the stimulus will get done and hopefully get the economy going again.
Treasuries and mortgage backs have rallied this morning, more from a technical trade than anything else. Yesterday, the market re-tested the November 2008 lows (high yield) where buyers re-entered the market, finding value at the 3.0% level on 10-year note. MBS has had a nice pop, up 12/32’s on good volume.
Good time to take advantage of the rally as god knows what those on the Hill will do to us as the day moves on. More in a few.