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Just about everyone in sight got hammered by todays drop in equities and honestly it puts us at ease to see that the markets can go down as well as up.  For those with lots of experience they know that the neverending march upward will end badly--the question is just when it will happen and how rapidly the fall comes.…

Banking company Northern Trust Corporation has announced the sale of a new preferred stock issue.  Being a banking issue the stock is both non cumulative and perpetual.  The coupon is 5.85%, reflecting the high quality of the issue (although no Standard and Poors or Moodys rating is found).Given the lower interest rate on this issue and the perpetual nature of the duration we have…

Date Issued  8/1/2014Shares Offered  16,000,000   Overallotment Shares  NoneS&P Rating   NR   Moodys Rating   NRSecurity Ticker Symbol   NTRSP   OTC Temp Ticker  NTRNPMarket Traded ON   NASDAQDividend Payment Paid on the 1st of January, April, July and October beginning on 01/1/2015Quarterly Dividend   .366   Annual Dividend   1.4625Securities may be redeemed, at the issuers option, as early as 10/1/2019 for a redemption price…

So far July has been a month of mostly treading water for preferred stocks and exchange traded debt issues with values just below the YTD highs--just off by 1/3% during July.  Obviously some are down more and some are up more as prices move with many factors such as ex dividends dates etc., but overall they are just off of…