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The 10 year treasury was trading at a yield of 2.09% a few minutes ago and unlike a few years ago, preferred stocks, as a group, are not reacting positively. The weakness in sectors such as the energy markets and perceived (real or perceived?) global economic weakness have kept energy and shipping fixed income securities heading down while the balance…

While the rocky, volatile markets continue each day (or almost each day) we have been able to count on the stability of shorter duration instruments to bring reasonably good gains to our portfolios.  This is best borne out in our 2014/2015 Short/Medium Duration Income Portfolio.We have now 'booked' the balance of the September interest and dividend payments to the portfolio…

Consistant with our prior writings we will be adding a starter position of 200 shares of REIT Lexington Realty Trust (ticker:LXP) to the Blended Income Model Portfolio. LXP is currently trading at $8.37 with a current yield of 8.12%. LXP has a 52 week trading range of $7.77 to $11.75.LXP is a triple net lease operator with emphasis on office…

I am sure many of our readers took note of the total shellacking that energy related preferred stocks took last week. The preferred shares of Magnum Hunter Resources (ticker:MHR now trading at 47 cents) in particular took the biggest beating. The $50 issue (ticker:MHR-D) took a $5 hit on Friday alone to close at $10.86 (this is a yield to…

Newtek Business Services (ticker:NEWT) is selling a small 7.5% $25 note issue.  These notes mature in 2022.  Newtek, while a Business Development Company, only converted to a BDC this year after being in business for 12 years as a C-Corp. Newtek is the largest non bank generator of Small Business Administration (SBA) loans which they service, but do not carry…