Finding a level of appropriateness in his timing that he rarely shows in his comments about, well, almost anything, US president Donald Trump proved there could be more shocks ahead this week by firing FBI director James Comey — a man he had lauded only a few weeks ago.
Trump’s unpredictability, the situation in North Korea and the fact that more than 10.5m French people over the weekend voted for a barely reconstructed fascist all show that markets may be good now, but more trouble could be on the way.
Issuers took heed of that this week with, seemingly, a competition raging across bond markets as to which sector could announce them most mandates. They were right to do so.
Public sector borrowers are now extremely well-funded and, at this rate, could well plan an extended summer holiday with so much issuance done.
But never before has the feeling that something disastrous could only be a second away been as much to the fore.
On Thursday, Trump dismissed the FBI probe into links between Russia and his campaign as a “charade” — a claim Comey’s successor, Andrew McCabe, directly contradicted.
By the time you read this, we could be on to the third FBI director this week. That won’t have a direct impact on capital markets, but if Trump is too busy batting off allegations over Russia, he certainly won’t have time to enact the growth-inducing policies he promised — and that definitely would rock the markets.