Are the Fed's Moves Working?

Michael Darda of MKM Partners sees some reasons for optimism (boldface mine):

After a set of extraordinary actions this weekend, several measures of credit risk have improved. The 10-year swap spread, which has been on the leading edge of this crisis, collapsed to 64.75 bps this morning from more than 90 bps on March 6; mortgage spreads also have decreased to 189 bps today from 237 bps on March 6. The TED spread remains wide at 164 bps, but this owes entirely to the collapse in the three-month Treasury bill rate to 65 bps this morning (now 91 bps), the lowest since 1958. Stock prices have been all over the roadmap during today's session, not surprising given the still high level of uncertainty among financial market participants. In any event, the incipient improvement in leading credit market indicators suggests that the Fed's extraordinary measures over the last few weeks are beginning to have an impact.

Tags: credit | economy | Federal Reserve

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