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French telecoms operator Orange sold a new 12 year trade on Tuesday and paid a low new issue premium for the €1bn deal. The deal was one of three that priced on Tuesday, but only seven new issues for the year so far, meaning investors are keen to put their money to work.

Surprisingly, given the strength of the corporate bond market, no euro mandates or roadshows were announced on Monday other than Vonovia's €1bn deal, which was completed intraday. However, the sterling market has finally flickered into life.

Vonovia, Germany’s largest housing association, may have sold the primary market's only investment grade corporate bond on Monday but as its order books showed, conditions remain very receptive for issuance.

Three investment grade corporate bond deals priced this week, building strong order books and paying minimal new premiums. However, the pipeline for the first full week of January contains just one roadshow. Some syndicate bankers are not that surprised though.

The People’s Bank of China announces new rules to promote cross-border RMB transactions, HSBC plans to launch a new service in Poland to capture business opportunities related to the Belt and Road Initiative, and Agricultural Bank of China obtained approvals for new branches in Southeast Asia.

With growing demand for overseas investment, Chinese regulators could release new outbound investment quotas in 2018 by rebooting the qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) programme and launching a two-way ETF Connect with Hong Kong.

Chinese regulators have given their blessing to Global Logistics Properties (GLP) returning to the Panda market. The company is putting a Belt and Road spin to the issuance programme, even though proceeds are going towards a recent acquisition in Western Europe.

The dollar market picked up where it left off in 2017 with tight pricing and bulging order books as borrowers hit the ground running.

Corporate bond market participants show little sign of caring about the end of European quantitative easing and the danger that presents to their market — which has arguably been the sector most affected by the policy. Nigel Owen reports.

Given the success of the corporate bond market's opening deals of the year, it was perhaps surprising that only one issuer came to market on Thursday, but Daimler achieved similar success to the RCI Banque Wednesday deal that it copied.

Foreign asset managers in China have started the New Year in style. Fidelity International launched two funds on January 2, covering onshore equity and fixed income, after receiving its private fund management (PFM) licence last May. The move came less than a week after BlackRock got the regulatory green light for its own PFM licence.

Investment grade corporate bond market players only had to wait one day for the first new deals of 2018. Renault and BMW both brought new paper to market on Wednesday, selling a total of €2.75bn of bonds with little premium.