In a new report, Wells Fargo analyst John McElravey takes a close look at the 2016 asset-backed securities (ABS) environment. Last week, a total of five ABS deals closed for a combined pricing of $3.3 billion, bringing February’s total to $12.2 billion so far.

McElravey notes that February is typically the most active month for ABS deals ahead of the ABS conference in Las Vegas. Since 2012, February has averaged $18.1 billion in total deals.

So far this year, consumer ABS issuance has fallen $4.2 billion short of last year’s pace. “The slower pace seems to be due to a combination of financial market volatility, Reg AB II compliance, and a later ABS Vegas conference,” McElravey notes.

The lone exception to the cooler ABS environment this year is subprime auto ABS. Not only is the $5.5 billion in 2016 issuance the largest issuance total of any ABS sector this year, it’s more than $1.1 billion ahead of last year’s pace.

Last year, Wells Fargo & Co WFC 1.74%, one of the nation’s largest subprime auto lenders, self-imposed…

Click here to continue reading

Want to learn more about how to profit off the stock market? Or maybe you just want to be able to look sophisticated in front of your coworkers when they ask you what you are reading on your Kindle, and you’d prefer to tell them “Oh, I’m just reading a book about stock market analysis,” rather than the usual “Oh, I’m just looking at pics of my ex-girlfriend on Facebook.” For these reasons and more, check out my book, Beating Wall Street with Common Sense. I don’t have a degree in finance; I have a degree in neuroscience. You don’t have to predict what stocks will do if you can predict what traders will do and be one step ahead of them. I made a 400% return in the stock market over five years using only basic principles of psychology and common sense. Beating Wall Street with Common Sense is now available on Amazon, and tradingcommonsense.com is always available on your local internet!