Bank of America

European high yield specialists hope the continent's market can repeat in 2016 its sharp outperformance compared with the US market last year — but history suggests that the two markets tend not to diverge for long.

A healthy euro benchmark pipeline is building for next week, with one supranational looking to print and a pair of sovereigns believed to be considering deals, after a week that didn’t finish as strongly as it started for core issuers.

Investors on Thursday pounced on Ireland's recovery story to lap up €3bn worth of 10 year bonds from the Celtic Tiger.

EasyJet, the UK budget airline, has mandated three banks for its first ever bond issue, and will run a roadshow next week.

National Australia Bank packed $3.5bn of funding into a multi-tranche deal on Wednesday, taking advantage of strong demand and a heightened risk appetite among US investors.

Korea Development Bank (KDB) snagged tight pricing for its $1.5bn dual-tranche bond, completing one of the first deals of the year in Asia. Some accounts stayed away citing expensive pricing and geopolitical concerns, but investors still thronged to the credit, viewing it as a defensive play amid high volatility.

Wednesday brought red back to equity traders' screens after a buoyant Tuesday, but trading action confirmed the satisfactory execution of this year’s first two substantial equity capital markets deals in Europe: the €1.03bn block trade in NN Group, the Dutch insurer, and French aerospace firm Safran’s €650m convertible.

The Inter-American Development Bank is the latest issuer to enter a red hot dollar market, after KommuneKredit and the Asian Development Bank raised money on Wednesday.

The European Stability Mechanism is seeking ideas for a bond issue next week, as the euro market burst back into life following a holiday across much of Europe on Wednesday.

Barclays has printed one of the largest dollar senior trades from a European bank in recent memory, as it and Santander UK took home $5bn of holding company debt between them on Tuesday.

Europe's equity capital market lost no time in hitting back after the scary start of Monday, when world markets tumbled after China's stockmarket went into freefall and Saudi Arabia and Iran's war of words became more rancorous.

Hong Kong real estate giant Swire Properties and the Korea Development Bank have launched the first investment grade bonds from Asia for 2016, opening books for dollar-denominated transactions on January 6.