Their guarantees should insulate agency mortgage bond investors from falling oil prices. But credit-risk transfer bonds - by design - aim to put the first dollar of loss on the shoulders of private investors. "At this point, you've got to start thinking that oil is telling you that something worse might be at hand," one portfolio manager who regularly buys credit-risk transfer bonds told IFR. Last Thursday, Freddie Mac cleared its first US$996m credit risk transfer of the year at new wides. Its 1.63-year US$252.m block of Baa2/BBB rated bonds priced at one-month Libor plus 145bp, compared to a 115bp spread it paid on its previous print in early December. The December deal in itself was priced 30bp wider to where similar outstanding bonds were traded at the time, said an investor. REUTERS