Europe

China has rolled out trade concessions to the United States, signalling a willingness to negotiate before the trade war gets out of control. But it has also increased its rhetoric over the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer in Canada.

Goldman Sachs International conducted business with Lars Windhorst, the colourful German financier, despite warnings from its compliance department that he was a high risk counterparty.

News that the European Central Bank was "reflecting" on reinstating its Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations for a third time (TLTRO III) sent a cheer through the financial institutions bond market this week. Banking commentators had been expecting some sort of extension for the cheap liquidity programme, now they see it as all but inevitable, writes Tyler Davies.

The European Central Bank set the alarm bells ringing for a fresh bout of volatility in the Italian government bond market on Thursday as it outlined its strategy for the reinvestments of its maturing bonds under the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP). Burhan Khadbai reports.

The European Central Bank (ECB) took the market by complete surprise this week when it said that it would stop buying conditional pass-through (CPT) covered bonds as part of its asset purchase programme.

France looks set to be in breach of European Union budget rules after president Emmanuel Macron promised a set of concessionary measures in an effort to quell the violent protests of the last few weeks. While, by the absolute letter of the law, France’s breach will not be as bad as Italy’s, such a situation will hardly do much to stem the rise of populism or boost the credibility of the EU.

Lower funding needs and the European Central Bank’s confirmation that reinvestments under its Public Sector Purchase Programme will go on for some time should be supportive for the SSA market in 2019, said funding officials and analysts, even after net buying under PSPP stops at the end of this year.

UK government bonds have been playing their traditional role as a haven trade for sterling investors amid the Brexit turmoil of the last 2.5 years. But some investors warn that this could change if the Labour Party wins a general election, as a ‘Corbyn premium’ will push up Gilt yields.

Italian equity capital markets (ECMs) have endured a less than stellar year with investors spooked by the country’s political ructions. But despite the outlook suggesting more of the same, as the country thrashes out a budget deal with the European Union, there are opportunities for Italian IPOs in 2019.

The European Central Bank’s reinvestment strategy will provide a "good backdrop" for the euro public sector market next year, according to analysts.

Danish logistics company Maersk gave investors something other than political and economic matters to consider this week when it announced a tender offer for its shortest dated euro bonds on Monday. If the current poor tone in the bond markets continues into 2019, this type of exercise could become more prevalent, writes Nigel Owen.

France’s Nexans has amended its €600m revolving credit facility, as loans bankers reiterate that many amend and extend exercises happening now are refinancing operations by a different name.