Americas

El Salvador’s Congress has approved the issuance of new external debt to enable it to refinance debt due later this year. That will mean one fewer headache for whoever wins next month’s presidential elections.

The global high yield bond market has produced $320bn of new issues in 2018, up to December 21, 43% down on last year’s total of $563bn, according to Dealogic. Sentiment has turned progressively more bearish as the year has worn on, with concerns about US-China trade hostility and overvaluation of US equities biting.

Mexico’s new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Amlo) is free to proceed with his proposed cancellation of Mexico City’s new airport after bondholders agreed to waive clauses that would have triggered an event of default.

An appetite for risk is returning to Latin America's equity markets heading into 2019 as worries over the China-US trade war and rates hikes in the latter country ease, according to a Lat Am fund manager survey from Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research.

In this round-up, Chinese president Xi Jinping’s speech at the celebration of China’s reform and opening up offered no concrete promises, the People’s Bank of China reopened the seven-day reverse repo after 36 days of suspension, and China dropped its holding of US government bonds for the fifth consecutive month.

2019 is likely to be another year where the independent mandate of central bankers comes under pressure from populist politicians in democracies. It is easy for those in the market to sympathise with the quiet technocrats over the loud-mouthed headbangers, but scrutiny is deserved.

Battling a host of problems — local and global — Latin American bond markets suffered a torrid 2018. Many issuers stayed away, high yielders struggled to find financing and investors booked losses. With more volatility expected, political developments in LatAm’s three largest economies could make or break the region’s bond markets in 2019. Oliver West reports.

The volume of euro bond issuance from US companies fell sharply in 2018 compared to recent years. The finger of blame was quickly pointed at Trump’s tax changes, but there were other forces at play. Can the barriers be lifted in time for a better 2019? Nigel Owen reports.

Bond and currency markets rallied on Monday after Mexico’s new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Amlo) presented a budget that Fitch said marked a continuation of Mexico’s existing fiscal framework.

Bond market participants mostly welcomed news that Ecuador had signed a loan with China last week, with some stating that the government’s fiscal adjustment left the sovereign’s bonds looking attractive despite a negative outlook from Moody’s.

Regulators agreed to impose a tighter identification regime for southbound trading of Stock Connect, foreign direct investment (FDI) into China dropped for the third month, and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) confirmed temporary import tariff cuts for automobiles from the US.

The dollar market is set to record its first month of zero bank debt issuance on record as borrowers remain on the sidelines amid choppy market conditions.