| Not So Benign Neglect
At $213bn, y-t-d Home Equity ABS sales are 51% off last year's pace. Year-to-date US CDO issuance of $274 billion is running 2% below 2006 sales. Fed Foreign Holdings of Treasury, Agency Debt last week (ended 10/10) increased $5.5bn, surpassing $2.0 TN for the first time. "Custody holdings" were up $252bn y-t-d (18.2% annualized) and $317bn during the past year, or 18.8%. Federal Reserve Credit last week declined $3.3bn to $858.3bn. Fed Credit has increased $6.1bn y-t-d and $27.2bn over the past year (3.3%). International reserve assets (excluding gold) - as accumulated by Bloomberg's Alex Tanzi - were up $1.050 TN y-t-d (28% annualized) and $1.189 TN year-over-year (25.4%) to a record $5.861 TN. Credit Market Dislocation Watch: October 10 - Financial Times (Saskia Scholtes): "Banks and investors are still struggling to value mortgage securities backed by subprime home loans more than four months after valuation disputes came to light...
Soaring shares ‘may leave markets vulnerable to painful correction ...
Sharp gains in share prices on both sides of the Atlantic despite worldwide financial turmoil could leave stock markets vulnerable to a painful correction, the Governor of the Bank of England told investors yesterday. As he predicted "many more months of stress in financial markets", Mervyn King raised a question mark over the fact that even as credit markets have been rocked by the sub-prime home loans crisis in the United States since August, share prices have continued a steep upward march. Sounding a warning that these largely unchecked gains in equity markets could leave them exposed, the Governor said: "It’s very striking that despite developments we’ve seen in the last three months, equity prices are on average higher now than they were in August.
Pulaski Financial Names Matthew Locke Mortgage Lending President
ST. LOUIS, MO -- 10/15/07 -- Pulaski Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: PULB) announced today that Matthew Locke, 38, will be the new president of the company's mortgage lending division. In this role, he will be responsible for managing all facets of Pulaski Bank's mortgage business, including the company's appraisal and title divisions. Locke will also join Pulaski's executive officer team, which is responsible for the development and implementation of the company's business policies and strategies. "Matt joined Pulaski in 1997 and has a proven track record of success over the past ten years in the bank's mortgage, home equity and consumer lending areas," said William A. Donius, Pulaski's Chairman and CEO. "He has successfully built several of our existing programs from the ground up. He initiated our consumer lending program over ten years ago, launched our home equity program almost five years ago, and established our Kansas City loan production operation in 2002.
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