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The US Federal Reserve’s emergency 50bp cut in interest rates on Tuesday failed to reassure markets. The US and European response to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak needs to incorporate targeted fiscal policy as well.

The coronavirus knows no borders — but the response is all about national power. The same will be true in markets.

Novo Banco has requested a capital injection of €1.037bn, much of which will be sourced from the Portuguese state. This shines a bad light on European banking regulators and their mandates.

Middle East sovereigns have been taking their time in getting round to doing green financing, despite many of the region’s companies and banks embracing the shift to sustainability-linked issuance. They have no excuse not to print, and every incentive to cement their commitment to sustainability.

Central banks across the world seem to be heading towards rate cuts, accelerated by the need to mitigate the economic effects of the Covid-19 outbreak. An unintended consequence of this is an increasing scarcity of attractive arbitrage funding opportunities for borrowers. This sort of funding, typically a perk of the best rated borrowers, will concentrate funding risk for them instead — ironically at a time when they should benefit from their safe haven status.

Bank of China made headlines last week for selling the first offshore Covid-19 linked bond. But the trade's status as a social bond — the first to come offshore from China — got less attention. The transaction shows the potential for social bonds from the country, while raising questions about why it has taken so long to see such a deal.

In this round-up, China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to record lows in February, the Hainan provincial government has stepped in to restructure HNA Group and the updated Securities Law took effect on Sunday.

In this round-up, the growth of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) infections outside China outpaced that reported by the country, Chinese regulators announced more loosening policies and the trade of wild animals for consumption is banned in the Mainland.

In this round-up, the sell-off in equities continues to worsen as Covid-19 spreads, Hong Kong’s financial secretary forecasted a budget deficit of HK$139.1bn for the 2020-21 fiscal year, and China’s January non-financial outbound investment dropped by 9.5% in US dollar terms.

The shock of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has forced some rapid thinking among capital markets participants. Almost the first impact has been on travel.

Market participants should be braced for political volatility as the world comes close to experiencing a pandemic.

“What's in a name?” wrote Shakespeare. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” A banker tried applying a similar philosophy last week. It wasn’t quite so poetic.