The new issue market is performing well with a large issue yesterday from P&G (which is slightly tighter in the secondary) and new issues today from Westfield Group and Roper Industries. Roper is barely investment grade rated yet the deal is several times oversubscribed.
Zerohedge has posted a copy of a letter to the SEC attributing blame for the money market fund problems clearly on the rating agencies. While this in itself is no shocker, the fact that the author of the letter runs a rating agency himself is unusual...as you can imagine, he largely points the finger at his competitors.
Looking at the DTCC data, I did notice one data point that was out of line with much longer term trends. Gross index outstanding has actually picked up for the first time in a long time; growing liquidity in that index bodes well for the market. Before the credit crisis, you could easily do a $2B trade, on the wire, with little impact to the market. During Q1, that liquidity dropped to $25-50mm but has gradually crept back up to $500mm-$750mm size markets.
This slightly dated article from the NYTimes draws some comparisons between GE and Enron with regard to their earnings management (aka manipulation). It quickly reminded me of one of my favorite contrarian articles of all times from Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker (here). In it, he argues that all of Enron's financial information was publicly available for those willing to solve a very very complex puzzle.
Commercial real estate is still struggling. However, some may point to the recent drop in delinquencies (the first since August 2008). Realpoint Research (via FT Alphaville) notes that it's simply a technical due to a large amount of GGP backed loans temporarily returning to 'currently paying' due to modifications.
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