Understandably, then, the issuer base for 2012-model second-lien loans is dominated by (1) loans with CCC facility ratings (mainly from issuers with a single-B corporate-rating profile) and (2) unrated middle-market paper.
While its true that major free cash flow generators like Microsoft and Apple rest complacent and keep tens of billions in nearly confiscatory money market paper, Google is much more proactive on cash acquisitions like YouTube and Double-Click.
Even if the fundamentals look good for a slack market on paper, market sentiment is still extremely nervous about which way things could go.
Known as conduits, these special-purpose vehicles borrow in the short-term, commercial-paper market to make acquisitions of highly rated paper in American asset-backed securities, and have been walloped by the plunging value of those assets since the frailty of subprime loans were exposed.
As the pace of withdrawals increased, both the stability of the money market mutual fund industry and the functioning of the commercial paper market were threatened.
Until five years ago Japan's commercial paper market was off limits to nonbank financial companies.
But the market is not paper, and it acts sensibly only in the long term.
Our central bank is now the U.S.' de facto commercial bank and our commercial paper market.
Seemingly the safest of all securitised corporate lending is the market for commercial paper.
But the commercial-paper market works like a private club with a tough admissions panel.
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The move to loosen up the commercial paper market came after morning indications showed credit conditions remain under enormous strain.
The hope is that investors will buy into this fund, and it will unfreeze the short-term asset-backed commercial paper market.
The Fed's move to loosen up the commercial paper market came after morning indications showed credit conditions remain under enormous strain.
Moody's, another rating agency, recently examined how 300 large companies would be affected, if they were shut out of the commercial-paper market.
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It said it would use the money raised to pay off bonds maturing in 2009 and reduce its reliance on the commercial-paper market.
But, if asked many would dismiss it as simply a case of the paper market being a leading indicator for the physical market.
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But because of the fear in the credit markets, including concern that debts won't be repaid, the commercial paper market has all but frozen.
The mounting concerns about overnight interbank rates and the commercial-paper market have led many investors to argue that the Fed should cut rates to restore calm.
This is clear from the performance of the commercial-paper market, another short-term asset class that rarely hits the headlines, where rates suddenly hit six-year highs last week.
Now, it is desperately propping up the commercial paper market.
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" Correct answer: "The balance sheet of Ford Motor Credit has deteriorated to the point where it is at constant risk of being pushed out of the commercial paper market.
These various actions appear to have improved the functioning of the commercial paper market, as rates and risk spreads have come down and the average maturities of issuance have increased.
Consider instead the lesser-known case of Tetra Laval, the EU's market leader in paper packaging, and its attempt to buy Sidel, a leading manufacturer of equipment that produces plastic bottles.
That said, a reform of Chile's stamp tax in 2002, which allowed the cost to be spread over several issues, appears to have given the commercial-paper market a healthy fillip.
Broker-dealers like the former Bear Stearns played an increasingly important role in lending during the bubble years, in the growth of the commercial paper market, structured investment products and derivatives trading.
No. 12, "speculative areas beyond housing may suffer in 2007, " has commenced with the evaporation of the asset-backed commercial paper market last summer and the drying up of private equity financing.
The commercial paper market is growing increasingly antsy and GE, not unlike a hedge fund, is stuck with some percentage of long-term assets that it is trying to fund with short-term money.
And a final benchmark price stems from a complex summation of interlinked spot, physical forwards, futures, options, and derivatives markets, which means the paper market is almost as important as the physical one.
The filing also said that during the quarter ended Aug. 31, deteriorations in the commercial paper market caused downgrades and depressed prices on some of the securities issued by structured investment vehicles.
The commercial paper market represents the short-term loans that corporations issue to one another, a market which has now all but dried up as banks and firms fear lending money to a potential defaulter.
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