Cmt Google Finance - Financial Power

CMT, or Credit Default Swaps referencing specific Corporate, Municipal, and Treasury bonds, aren’t directly tracked and displayed by Google Finance in the way individual stocks, bonds, or ETFs are. Google Finance is primarily focused on providing real-time and historical market data for publicly traded securities.

However, understanding how to *use* Google Finance in conjunction with other resources to *infer* information relevant to credit risk, and therefore indirectly connect to CMTs, is possible. Here’s a breakdown:

Bond Prices and Yields: Google Finance *does* track individual bond prices and yields. You can search for specific bond CUSIPs (Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures) if you have them. Monitoring these prices and yields is crucial because:
- Price Decreases: A significant and sustained drop in a bond’s price can indicate increased credit risk. Investors are selling the bond, likely due to concerns about the issuer’s ability to repay.
- Yield Spreads: Compare the yield of a specific corporate bond to a comparable Treasury bond (a risk-free benchmark). A widening yield spread, the difference between the two yields, suggests investors are demanding a higher premium to compensate for the perceived higher credit risk of the corporate bond. This wider spread essentially reflects, in a broad sense, the rising “cost” of credit protection – analogous to what a CMT price would be doing.
Equity Prices: While CMTs are about debt, monitoring the equity (stock) price of the underlying company is important. A sharp decline in a company’s stock price often precedes or coincides with increasing credit risk:
- Market Sentiment: A falling stock price indicates negative market sentiment about the company’s overall health. This negative sentiment frequently translates into concerns about the company’s ability to meet its debt obligations.
- Correlation, Not Causation: Remember that correlation doesn’t equal causation. A failing stock price may *not* directly cause a company to default, but it’s a strong warning sign to investigate further.
News and Analysis: Google Finance aggregates news articles and financial analysis reports. Pay close attention to news related to the issuer of the bonds you’re interested in:
- Credit Ratings Agencies: Look for announcements from rating agencies like Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch. Downgrades (or warnings of potential downgrades) are significant indicators of increased credit risk. These reports are often summarized or mentioned in news articles accessible through Google Finance.
- Company Announcements: Scrutinize press releases from the company itself, particularly those related to earnings, debt management, and major operational changes.
Financial Ratios (Indirect): Google Finance provides some basic financial data for publicly traded companies. You can analyze key ratios to assess creditworthiness:
- Debt-to-Equity Ratio: A high ratio indicates high leverage, potentially increasing the risk of default.
- Interest Coverage Ratio: A low ratio suggests difficulty in paying interest expenses, increasing the risk of default.

Limitations: Google Finance provides a broad overview, but it’s *not* a substitute for professional financial analysis or direct access to CMT pricing data (which is generally available only to institutional investors through specialized platforms). You’ll need to use Google Finance as one tool within a broader research process, combining it with credit ratings agency reports, SEC filings, and other reliable sources of information.