Weekly Market Update (3/27/09)‏

Payden & Rygel

HEADLINE NEWS WEEK ENDING 3/27/09

Overview
Existing home sales rose 5.1% in February to an annualized rate of 4.72 million as declining home prices and falling interest rates began to lure would-be home buyers back into the market. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury

US MARKETS
Treasury/Economics
US Treasuries traded in a narrow range this week with a tendency towards higher yields. The 30-year bond was the exception by rallying 10 basis points (bps). more...
http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury
Large-Cap Equities
The stock market rallied for the third straight week spurred by details of the Treasury's $1 trillion public-private plan to buy troubled bank assets on Monday. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury

Corporate Bonds
Investment grade primary issuance utilized the recent positive sentiment in the equity markets to bring out issuers looking to tap into the market before earnings season commences. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury

Mortgage-Backed Securities
The residential and commercial mortgage markets responded favorably to the Obama Administration’s long awaited plan to address the slew of legacy real estate assets clogging the banking system. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury

Municipal Bonds
Dominating market action this week was California’s gigantic new general obligation (GO) bond issue. The state set out to borrow $4 billion, but due to strong demand from retail investors in higher tax brackets seeing yields equivalent to 8-9% taxable bonds, the deal was upsized to $6.54 billion. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury

High-Yield
The high yield market has maintained the momentum of the past two weeks and continued to rally. The Merrill Lynch High Yield Constrained Index is up 6.3% since March 6, 2009 and has been following directionally the 20% rally in the S&P 500 index over the comparable period. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Western European Equities
Stocks in Western Europe gained ground over the past week. The stocks with the best performance were auto and parts (+4.9%) and food and beverages (+4.4%). more...
http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury
Eastern European Equities
The CECE index of equities traded in Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland) gained +2.7% this week, while the Russian stock index RTS went up by +3.5%. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury

Global Bonds and Currencies
Major non-US government bond markets were generally weaker over the past week, weighed down by a combination of further stock market gains, a more upbeat tone to some economic forecasts and supply concerns. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury

Emerging-Market Bonds
Emerging market dollar-pay debt spreads tightened this week. Risk markets continued the positive tone of recent weeks, with investor sentiment buoyed by the better-than-expected US economic data. more...http://payden.com/library/weeklyMarketUpdateE.aspx#treasury

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