Murcia, Spain offers Palatinum Golf, Spa, and Sport Resort guests some of the most beautiful beaches around, nearly all of which are located on Mar Menor. Mar Menor is Europe’s biggest natural salt-water lagoon, which is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by only a narrow strip of land known as La Manga (the strip).

During the summer months, Mar Menor’s temperatures rise due to the shallow water and warm atmosphere, making this lagoon a hot spot for water lovers. The average depth...

First Quarter Forecast
1/8/10 Mortgage Backed Securities are plus 6bp this morning. The Labor Department released their employment numbers this morning and it showed 85,000 jobs were lost in December. Most analysts were predicting flat job losses or positive growth. This caused stock futures to fall and a there was a flight to safety. Markets have since shed some of their losses. We have stated over the last 2 weeks that this market thinks all news is good news. We were seeing a downward...

Changing Their Tune
1/7/10 Mortgage Backed Securities are -9bp this morning. Initial Jobless Claims are as expected and continuing claims are higher. The stock markets took this as bad news and sold off to start the day. We have stated repeatedly that all news was good news. The stock markets have shrugged off this information and have moved closer to unchanged. We are starting to see more analyst talk about a correction that is possible in the stock market. That would be good news for the...

Equity Markets Plow Ahead
1/6/10 Mortgage Backed Securities are -28bp this morning. There is no news that this market does not like. We have seen worse than expected new home sales, vastly lower than expected existing home sales and a jobs report today that showed more job losses when the market priced in positive jobs. We did see a 1% increase in the ISM number, when the analyst expected 2%. Everyone of these reports was priced into the market as a positive. The market however has not adjusted...

Markets are Mixed
1/5/10 Mortgage Backed Securities are plus 25bp this morning. Stock markets are mixed this morning. Pending home sales were down 16% in November. This is a great example of what happens when the stimulus runs dry. US factory orders rose 1.1%. This is due in large part to cash for clunkers. These two reports reinforce what we have been saying about sustainability. When stimulus fades so does the economic outlook. I hope there are still buyers for MBS left when that time comes....