Weekly Market Update (3/20/09)‏

HEADLINE NEWS WEEK ENDING 3/20/09

Overview
The Federal Reserve said this week that it “will employ all available tools to promote economic recovery.” more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

US MARKETS
Treasury/Economics
This week was historic for the Treasury market as yields had their biggest one-day rally in decades following the news that the Federal Reserve is committed to purchasing Treasuries. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

Large-Cap Equities
The stock market continued to rally this week as the Fed announced that it will purchase Treasuries and mortgage bonds to help lower borrowing costs. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

Corporate Bonds
Investment grade primary activity continued its torrid pace as issuers took advantage of the improving sentiment in the equity market. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

Mortgage-Backed Securities
In a continuing effort to support the housing and mortgage markets, the Federal Reserve surprised investors with their announcement to commit another $750 billion of their balance sheet to purchasing agency mortgage backed securities. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

Municipal Bonds
After the Treasury market’s massive Wednesday rally in the wake of the Fed’s announcement that it would literally create more money to buy assets like Treasury bonds and mortgages, the municipal market registered a dramatic, lagged response on Thursday. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

High-Yield
This week’s decision by the Federal Reserve to fully engage in quantitative easing by directly buying US Treasuries and the following positive impact on the equity markets, have translated into an upward momentum for the high yield market. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Western European Equities
Stocks in Western Europe gained ground over the past week. The stocks with the best performance were insurance (+19.7%) and banks (+15.4%). more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

Eastern European Equities
The CECE index of equities traded in Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland) gained +8.3% this week, while the Russian stock index RTS went up by +6.8%. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

Global Bonds and Currencies
The announcement of the US Fed’s latest, surprisingly aggressive, easing measures elicited a relatively subdued response from major non-US sovereign bond markets although yields were generally lower this the week. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

Emerging-Market Bonds
Emerging market dollar-pay debt spreads tightened this week, as the increased level of risk appetite seen over the previous week continued to drive credit spreads lower. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#overview

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Have a great weekend!