1. IGE (owned): IGE is an ETF containing North American natural resource stocks that I added to my portfolio recently. BOUGHT 100 IGE/Forbes Makes Case for Bonds Over Stocks/PFK Retrospective/S & P Economist: No Inflation Threat for Five Years at Least This is a link to a good article at TheStreet.com about this ETF.
2. NEW HOME SALES: New home sales increased 11% in June, the largest monthly increase in nine years. http://www.census.gov/const/newressales.pdf The bad news is that the median price continues to fall, down 6% from the May reading. The Case-Shiller index will be released this week. Home Price I will be curious when it will show a sequential increase in home prices, which I would view as important.
3. 20 Year TIP Auction: I decided to stay away from submitting a bid in this auction. The high yield was 2.387%. www.treasurydirect.gov.pdf For those interested, the FED provides data daily on the real treasury yields: U.S. Treasury - Daily Treasury Real Yield Curve Last Friday, the real yield for the 20 year bond was 2.36%. The real yield is after inflation. The Fed also provides us with the nominal yield for the treasury securities on a daily basis. U.S. Treasury - Daily Treasury Yield Curve Last Friday the nominal yield for the 20 year was 4.53%. The break even point was too high for me at around 2.17%, based on those Friday numbers, and I want more than 2.5% in a coupon for such a long maturity. See generally, Advantages and Disadvantages of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities:
4. Dividends and Interest (all of the foregoing securities are owned): A couple of the synthetic floaters (GJN & GJT) go ex interest on Wednesday with their monthly interest payments. Synthetic Floaters The TC PIS, which contains a senior bond from Liberty Media, goes ex interest also with its semi annual payment. I have been paring my exposure to Liberty Media bonds based on my opinion that John Malone has been acting in a manner contrary to the interest of the Liberty bond holders. SOLD 1/2 OF PIS POSITION Reduction in IRA: TC WITH Liberty Media bond-50 shares of PKK (Both sales were in an IRA after a Roth conversion at about twice the value at the time of transfer). I am now down to 50 PIS and 200 PKK in a taxable account. Two senior bonds PMA Capital (PMK) and Prudential Financial (PFK) also go ex interest with their monthly interest payments on Wednesday. PMK is a fixed coupon bond with a $10 par value. PFK is a floater that pays interest based on a 2.4% spread over a CPI calculation. The penny rate for PFK will be $.03458 for the upcoming payment, and as expected this number has declined recently due to the fall in the CPI numbers. Par value is $25. PWE, a Canadian energy company, will go ex with its monthly dividend of 15 cents Canadian. Conoco Phillips (COP) and Brookfield Asset Management (BAm), two positions added during RB's frolic last March, will go ex dividend with their respective quarterly payments. Buy of COP Buy of EWC & BAM Lastly, the recently added TP issue, FBFPRN (Fleet Capital Trust IX) , has its ex interest date for its quarterly payment. Bought 100 FBFPRN/
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