Americas

There is a plan to rescue the US economy with a $500bn corporate bailout. At the time of writing, that plan is held up in the US Senate. While the country's president Donald Trump is griping about the delay, it’s a fight worth having. The Republican Party's proposal is woefully short on oversight.

Bank of America has become the first financial institution to launch a new deal in the European credit market for over a month. The US lender paid a huge premium for its €1.5bn senior bond on Tuesday, but it was able to move past its initial price thoughts on the back of a solid set of orders from investors.

Mexican petrochemicals company Grupo Idesa is offering bondholders a collateral package and higher coupon to participate in a bond exchange that would allow it to avoid default later this year.

Ecuador will make a $325m bond maturity payment on Tuesday as it looks to unlock $2bn of further funding that the finance minister will be “immediately” accessible. But the sovereign will delay $245m in coupon payments later this week, and the minister did not confirm that these payments would be made when the new loans arrive.

Radical intervention by central banks around the world to calm markets will help give companies the comfort they need to prepare emergency capital increases to combat the effects of the spread of the coronavirus on their balance sheets, according to equity capital markets bankers.

A rush to dollars in recent days has caused dysfunctions in various corners of the financial markets. The US Federal Reserve has rushed to put out the flames, including with new measures on Monday.

The pace of emerging markets borrowers’ requests for official institution funding, amid the shocking deterioration of their bond markets, is picking up pace. On Sunday, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had discussed using International Monetary Fund resources to fight the economic impact of Covid-19.

Martín Guzmán, Argentina’s finance minister, said on Friday afternoon that the country was “ready to intensify interaction” with international bondholders ahead of a debt restructuring. But with authorities set to announce further spending to protect its people from the economic impact of Covid-19, the IMF echoed the government’s view that a fiscal surplus was unfeasible in the short term.

Europe's bank funding officials are not certain how their borrowing plans are likely to change but seem agreed there is little point in hitting the primary market until serious liquidity returns, That has given Canada's banks the run of the place with this week with another deal emerging from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on Friday.

In this round-up, Europe has now seen more Covid-19 infections than China and Italy more fatalities than the Mainland, the central bank has decided not to lower the loan prime rate (LPR), and Beijing has banned reporters from three US newspapers.

Colombia’s Ecopetrol became the first of Latin America’s big national oil companies to launch an action plan to combat the continued fall in oil prices as it looks to preserve cash.

Emerging market bond conditions got worse and worse this week as investors struggled to sell bonds quickly enough to keep up with outflows. Though some investors said they had lined up a shopping list of cheap purchases, it could be some time before they decide to pounce.