Week in Review: The markets were generally well aware of Northeastern’s spring break and decided to take the majority of this week off as well. Coming into the week there was minimal data risk, barring Friday’s NonFarm Payrolls. Typically a big market mover, investors were poised to ignore any downsides related to the print and once again attribute a poor result to the weather. Combined with the fact that both Dudley and Lockhart of the Fed spoke this weak about the very high bar being set for reducing the pace of tapering this week’s employment numbers would have little significance on broader market tone. Consensus stood at 146K new jobs, while the actual numbers came in well above this at 175K. Unemployment rose to 6.7%, as more people entered into the employment pool by beginning to actively search for jobs. Meanwhile, in the bond world, this week saw the second largest issuance of all-time, with nearly $50bn in new issues prices. The turmoil in the Ukraine, which has been holding rates low, has provided an attractive time to come to market. As expected, all of this refinancing activity is brewing the cauldron for M&A activity, which has been on the rise. Cerberus Capital Management announced an enormous $9.4bn LBO of US retailer Safeway, which is expected to close Q4 this year. Are we finally nearing the long-awaited M&A boom? Or will this be another 2012, with only a select few megadeals? Only time will tell.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 23:34:50 +0000
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