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Of the 13 German Pfandbriefe issued this year, a trio of deals issued by DZ Hyp, BayernLB and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank are vying for the top covered bond mark.

Société Générale’s €1bn eight year and Credi-Mutuel CIC’s €1bn five year are leading the way with the highest mark of all French covered bonds issued this year on GC Bond Marker. But with the survey still open on Caffil’s recent €1bn 10 year social debut, these two issuers could well be knocked off the top spot.

Over the past year, Asian investors have become pickier about which Gulf credits they buy, and it has felt to some in emerging market bonds that marketing Middle East issuers to them can be futile. But a storming success for Mashreqbank this week demonstrated that engaging Asian investors is worth the jet lag.

Latin America's primary bond market has had its slowest start for nine years despite strong appetite for emerging market debt. This has presented an unexpected opportunity for issuers, and those from Brazil are best placed to take advantage.

The UK banking sector has more links to China than the equivalent sectors in the US, Japan, the euro area and South Korea do combined. Analysts are warning that China's growth is slowing, and HSBC’s poor results have been linked to this. But those espousing that view are overstating the connection.

Investors should beware the surge in Brazilian equities that coincided with the election of its new president Jair Bolsonaro last year.

In this round-up, trade talks between China and the US will continue in Washington DC after no deal was reached last week in Beijing, total credit growth came above market consensus and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China received a green light to set up a wealth management subsidiary.

In this round up, US president Donald Trump hinted at a potential delay of the March 1 deadline for a trade deal with China, the National Development and Reform Commission required its local units to zoom in on the potential for bond defaults and Bank of China (BOC) said it will lend Rmb300b to the Tianjin government.

In this round-up, foreign currency reserves beat market expectations in January, MSCI added 12 securities to its China Index and Standard Chartered signed an MoU with a Chinese supply chain financing provider.

Jamie Dimon, long known to be among the mouthiest of the titans of investment banking and the loudest bitcoin sceptic of all, now presides over the first ever cryptocurrency from a major bank.

In the emerging markets over the past year the art of bond investing has often felt like perfecting the skill of mitigating disaster — of knowing when to catch a falling knife or jump on a rebound before everyone else does.

It can be rough living in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Tai Tai and I are fortunate enough to afford a lovely home with plenty of room for my Scotch collection, but I know most people in Hong Kong aren’t so lucky.