Americas

The US corporate bond market slowed to a trickle this week with just a handful of smaller deals as desks thinned out ahead of the Labor Day holiday.

At least $8bn in IPOs from Asian issuers could hit screens in September alone, if everything goes according to plan. But with investor sentiment still on the rocks despite the mid-year lull coming to a close, equity capital markets bankers are hoping for a swift end to what has been a summer of volatility. John Loh reports.

The US S&P 500 index hit a record high on Tuesday, which means that the US equity bull market had, by most standards, equalled the longest in history. Nevertheless primary equity market practitioners seem to retain a sense of gloom that the good times are about to end.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group on Wednesday said that it would launch two new interest rate futures referencing the sterling overnight index average (Sonia) on October 1.

New US sanctions announcements on Russia, chatter around new IMF financing for Angola and a desperate economic recovery plan in Venezuela are keeping those emerging market portfolio managers still at their desks busy. But low volumes are playing havoc with EM secondary levels as traders embrace the quietest trading week of the summer.

The pipeline of Asian IPOs headed for the US is shaping up for September, with the latest crop of issuers all starting to drum up investor interest.

Venezuela has adopted a radical approach in its attempt to rein in its out-of-control economy, effectively devaluing its currency by almost 96% and pegging the value to Venezuela’s oil-backed pseudo-cryptocurrency — widely considered a scam.

Major cryptocurrency exchanges Bittrex, Gemini, Bitstamp and bitFlyer have launched a working group to establish a self-regulatory organisation (SRO), potentially having large implications for the cryptocurrency spot and derivatives markets.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded Ecuador from B to B- on the back of its rapidly rising debt burden, even though the country finally has a finance minister popular with bond investors.

Tencent Holdings-backed Qutoutiao has filed draft documents for a Nasdaq IPO, with plans to raise up to $300m.

Chinese mobile internet company CooTek is planning a $100m IPO of American Depository Shares (ADS), according to a draft prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

The drought in Latin American new issuance stretched to six weeks by Thursday, but DCM bankers are now more concerned by prospects for September after contagion from Turkey hit Lat Am assets this week.