Americas

Argentine sovereign bonds hit highs for the year on Monday after the US court-appointed mediator in the holdout dispute said that the country’s secretary of finance and vice-chief of cabinet would return to New York to negotiate with bond investors in the second week of January.

Movements in Pacific Exploration & Production’s share price left investors confused after the company announced it had brought in Lazard as a financial advisor and was seeking covenant relief on its loans.

Bad news seems determined to afflict Brazil until the very end of the year as Joaquim Levy’s resignation on Friday sent bonds to new lows with much of the market in holiday mode.

For most observes it had already become a matter of time. Standard & Poor’s had already made Brazil a sub-investment grade borrower and both Fitch and Moody’s had Latin America’s largest sovereign on review for downgrade.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission this week voted in a final rule on margin requirements for uncleared swaps for bank dealers and major swap participants – despite the objection of one of the three commissioners that it will be far less effective at reigning in US bank excesses than an earlier version

Good news from the US Federal Reserve — in the form of a more dovish rate announcement than some market participants had expected — brought a sanguine close to a turbulent week for credit derivatives and boosted equity markets, but only added to the pressure on emerging market countries and their currencies.

Persistent volatility has left the vast majority of bank capital trades trading wider in 2015, with poor periphery performers joined by some notable big hitters at the bottom of the pile.

The dollar market for corporate bonds came to a shuddering halt as potential issuers kicked borrowing plans into next year amid choppy market conditions.

Faced by a dwindling market for single name credit default swaps and the prospect that dealers could retreat from the product due to higher margins on non-cleared derivatives, a group on the buy-side has taken clearing into their own hands, in what one seasoned observer said is an attempt to “head off” an uncertain regulatory foe.

MTN investors are speculating that the huge yield available on Argentine peso bonds may be worth the risk of buying bonds denominated in a currency which is undergoing official devaluation.

The European high yield bond market tightened on news of the Federal Reserve’s rate hike but syndicate desks are still wary that the ugly situation in the US may have knock on effects in their market.

A US public sector borrower will bring a large green bond which will startle the US market, according to one market expert, as green bonds gain further importance after COP 21.