Americas

Venezuela’s surprise issuance of $5bn of 20 year bonds in a private placement sold this week to state-owned Banco de Venezuela had no obvious explanation, said bond market participants.

Pulp and paper producer Fibria Celulose is looking to become the second Brazilian company in the sector to issue green bonds after mandating five banks to manage an investor roadshow.

Citi became the first US bank to hit the market in 2017 amid a torrent of Yankee issuance, as it took home $5.25bn in two separate trades to power a record start to the year for dollar supply.

Timothy Massad, chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has resigned, with J Christopher Giancarlo widely expected to take up the job, fuelling hopes of a more flexible, market friendly approach to regulation.

Auto makers led from the front as corporate US dollar issuance this week got off to its best ever start to the year.

European financials have found every reason to get into the dollar market early in 2017, leading to a fireworks display of total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) senior deals this week. Though market conditions could not have been better to receive the banks, many will have wanted to squirrel away quantities of funding and capital for what could be another troublesome year in the capital markets.

CME Group is set to introduce six currency futures with monthly expiries.

Major derivatives exchanges have released figures showing growth over 2016 and in December, with big gains reported in some product lines.

John Maynard Keynes said we live in a world of irreducible uncertainty, while neoclassical economists assume that perfect information is available and people have rational expectations. The events of the past decade suggest that the former school of thought has more credence, though “freshwater” economists would no doubt disagree.

Royal Bank of Canada, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank tapped the sterling covered bond market this week at cheaper levels than they could have achieved in euros and dollars.

Power generation company Genneia looks set to become the first Argentine company to debut in bond markets this year as DCM bankers predict a slew of new corporate issuers from the country in 2017.

Brazilian corporates Fibria Celulose and Raizen are looking to sell dollar bonds this month as bankers say issuances volumes from Latin America’s largest economy will continue to recover in 2017.