Emerging market investing inherently has traditionally held a far wider array of risks than buying into developed markets and investors there have needed to block out a lot of headline noise in order to gather enough conviction to put money to work. But the same could now be said for developed markets too.
War has broken out in the Middle East, with Israel and Iran trading volleys of missiles. The threat of US participation will escalate the situation from being a regional conflict. Meanwhile, Israel continues its campaign in Gaza, Ukraine is still at war with Russia and the disruptive threat of US tariffs remains.
In short, the threats to global market stability loom large.
A bond investor looking on Tuesday at UniCredit’s successful tier two trade, or Sweden's first bond in seven years, or a day later at Hyundai Capital America’s roaring euro debut, could be forgiven for asking why deals are not harder to execute.
In large part, it is because developed market investors have had to quickly realise what their EM peers have always known. The only way to invest during a seemingly never-ending flow of alarming news is to ignore almost all of it.
For the moment, this approach is working. New bonds are tightening in secondary, spreads remain tight, and, in the credit markets, yields are high.
But the threat of a big shock to the market remains — be that through another jolt from US tariff policy or military escalation in the Middle East — that could send prices into a tailspin and shutter new issuance.
For now, investors have little choice but to ignore the mood music and keep playing the game.