Credit Default Swaps (or default risk) have really come in over the last week, and as shown below, an index of CDS prices for 125 investment grade North American debt broke its uptrend and key support in recent days.  A break of these key technical levels leaves plenty of room to run on the downside, which is a positive for the overall market.

Below we highlight the CDS prices for four big banks and brokers.  Default risk for these companies has also dropped significantly over the last few weeks.  CDS prices for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have really moved back to more normal trading levels, while Bank of America and Citigroup are down but still have a lot further to fall before anyone can say the coast is clear.