Americas

Jamaica underlined the issuer-friendly conditions on offer in EM bond markets this week after an oversubscribed tap of two bonds that left some investors with allocations of zero amid a simultaneous buy-back.

Mauricio Macri’s ability to persuade Argentines of the long term benefits of his reforms amid a tough economic environment brought rewards to bond investors this week and left market analysts pleasantly surprised.

This week Brian Quintenz was sworn in as a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), after he was confirmed alongside chairman Christopher Giancarlo and Rostin Behnam by the Senate two weeks ago.

Standard & Poor’s has removed the immediate threat of a sovereign downgrade for Brazil after saying that the political landscape is “somewhat more settled” than it was in May, but markets hardly reacted.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) this week settled with Aruba-based Copersucar Trading over wash trade allegations involving sugar futures traded on Intercontinental Exchange US.

You are looking to buy an item on Amazon. The first two reviews could not be more contrasting. One is a glowing five star rating. The other is a one star hatchet job. Which do you believe? This was akin to the situation facing investors considering Amazon’s new bond on Tuesday, with Moody’s opinion of the company four notches lower than that of S&P.

Goldman Sachs opened the Swiss market in the middle of the summer holidays on Thursday, selling the largest US financial Swiss franc bond in the last two years — a consequence, bankers said, of clever timing from a respected name.

Amazon dominated US corporate bond issuance this week, but aside from the online retailer’s $16bn jumbo deal, there was over $8bn of paper from five other issuers. However, bankers believe this will be the last week of material supply before the annual two week break in the US market.

Standard & Poor’s has removed the immediate threat of a sovereign downgrade for Brazil after saying that the political landscape is “somewhat more settled” than it was in May.

Chinese live streaming platform YY tapped the US market this week with a block sale of American Depositary Shares (ADS), capitalising on a surging stock price. Bankers are preparing for a raft of similar block sales — as well as a growing list of US IPOs from Chinese companies. Jonathan Breen and John Loh report.

Indian company Intas Pharmaceuticals is lining up banks to help it fund an acquisition in Europe and the US, turning back to lenders who helped the company pull off a successful takeover earlier this year. But this time around, it has more bargaining power. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

Amazon priced the third jumbo M&A financing bond issue in a month in the US corporate bond market on Tuesday. The $16bn seven tranche package was the fourth-largest new issue of 2017, but the summer of 2017 could signal the high point of M&A related issuance for some time, writes Nigel Owen.