Featured Articles

We like to watch the macro pricing levels of all the different sectors of income securities---watching any given singular security is of no real help in establishing trends.  ETF's of a sector can help and Closed End Funds (CEFs) may help, but they trade with discounts and premiums so they are not always helpful.  We watch 1 item that is…

Both stock and bond markets are gyrating up and down today as they try to decifer the meaning of the very strong employment number that was released today.  While we haven't had time to pick through all the details of the report at first blush it looks like a lot of lousy jobs were created, while the higher paying jobs went south--we…

On a technical basis we doubt we are dipping into a recession  (2 successive quarters of negative growth)---yet.  While the 1st quarter was weak with negative growth of .7% we think that we will likely have positive growth in the 2nd quarter, although we think it is more likely a 1-2% growth instead of the 2.5-3% the smart people are forecasting.…

Associated Banc-Corp (ticker:ASB), a large Wisconsin regional bank, has sold a non cumulative offering which should be trading today on the OTC grey market.  If you are not aware of how to buy preferred stocks 'wholesale' you can look at the discussion here.The issue has a 6.125% coupon and is redeemable in 5 years.  The issue is investment grade (ASB preferreds…

Date Issued  6-1-2015Shares Issued    2,600,000    Overallotment Shares    NoneS&P Rating   NR   Moodys Rating   Baa3Security Ticker Symbol   ASB-C   OTC Temporary Ticker  ASCTPMarket Traded ON   NYSEDividend Payment Paid on the 15th of March, June, September and December beginning on 09/15/2015Quarterly Dividend   .383   Annual Dividend   1.531Securities may be redeemed, at the issuers option, as early as 06/15/2020 for a…