My first question is for Rick. Not sure if you have these stats handy, but I was curious if you could get any update on the current depth of book stats that you shared in the past, as clear the market tone and activity levels have improved a lot?
Rick Redding
Yeah. We have been looking at those, Howard. And in December, what you actually see across almost every product, even compares to September, you''ve seen depths of books increase anywhere from 10 to 60%. What you see is -- even in things like the Treasury Complex, which was really affected by the crisis, what you do see is the depth of the book actually coming back to pre-crisis levels. We''ve also seen the average bid-ask spread come in quite a bit. And especially in some of the financial products for large-size contracts, you actually again see these kind of pre-crisis levels. So we''re very encouraged where the liquidity is in the markets given the amount of destruction that occurred early in 2009.
Howard Chen – Credit Suisse
Great. Thanks. And then Jamie, my follow-up, just on the numbers. The commentary that interest expense levels stay near the current levels for the next two quarters. Does that imply you temporarily like stop the debt pay down and is the thought to just hoard a bit more cash now?
James E. Parisi
Howard, it''s really just a function of how the maturity is laid out. So there''s only a little bit left on the commercial paper to pay down and then we have a maturity in the third quarter in August that will be accumulating. So we''ll pay that down.
Howard Chen – Credit Suisse
Just to follow up on that briefly. Jamie, is there a prepayment penalty for what''s due in August?
James E. Parisi
What''s due in August is a public issue. So there is no prepayment clause on that. The only piece that does have a prepayment ability on it is the bank loan that I believe is due next August in 2011. So that''s the only piece that we are able to pre-pay and if we do pre-pay it, we do have hedges outstanding where we did fix the rates. So there is a cost associated with unwinding those hedges. So it doesn''t necessarily make sense for us to do that immediately. So it''s something that we continue to analyze as conditions change.
Howard Chen – Credit Suisse
Okay. Thanks.
Craig S. Donohue
Sure.
Operator
We''ll go next to Richard Repetto with Sandler O''Neill.
Richard Repetto – Sandler O''Neill and Partners
Yes. Good morning.
Craig S. Donohue
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