Free content

The post-summer period will mark the biggest test of Europe's high-yield market since the financial crisis of 2008. If deals get done, talk of its growing maturity will have been well-founded. If not, its fragility will have been exposed.

Central bank policy has entered unchartered territory during the crisis, but it hasn’t run its course yet. An obscure article in the ECB founding treaty, plus a little wisdom from the structured finance world, could provide a way back to market access for the peripheral sovereigns.

EM bond prices are holding up. But volumes are low and cash is being hoarded. The signs are not necessarily good.

A second day of ECB purchases of Italian and Spanish bonds has forced yields back down into more sustainable territory. The rights and wrongs of central bank support in markets are for another time. This was the shot in the arm that the European sovereign market needed.

Chinese video website Tudou has somehow got enough demand to cover the books on its $180m US IPO, defying tumbling equity prices, a US downgrade, fears over the solvency of European countries and a whole lot more. But it is hard to avoid a sense of déjà vu.

Gold’s status as ultimate safe haven remains unchallenged amid the general sell-off in the financial markets.

Do total return swaps provide beneficial ownership of an underlying corporation?

Asian companies have a lot to offer debt investors. But the recent turmoil in credit markets has given ample evidence, if any were needed, that the strengths of the region cannot outweigh problems elsewhere.

Mandate documents are finally demonstrating the importance of Russian lenders to the syndicated loan market, both domestically and throughout the CIS region. New players with a deeply vested interest in the region’s performance will benefit borrowers and boost the health of a market that is vulnerable to fallout from the eurozone debt problems.

In the surreal world of accounting regulations, not being able to sell something turns out to be a good thing.

Phew! That was close. By veering to the brink of default, the US showed the world the depth of its problems. Perhaps even some in Washington realised. Lest they go back to denial, the rating agencies now need to show some backbone.

Asian companies hoping to raise money in the bond market face a tough choice: come to the market now and pay more to borrow than they could have done earlier this year — or wait and risk the markets getting worse and prices moving higher. Companies with half a chance of getting a deal away should strike sooner rather than later.