North America

US companies have smashed the all time record for bond issuance this month, as they plundered the dollar market in a headlong dash for liquidity that continued on Thursday, even though a darker record was broken: 3.3m new unemployment claims, more than four times the previous highest.

The volume of new euro senior debt sold by banks has hit €10bn this week, following deals from Barclays, Credit Suisse and NatWest Markets on Thursday. Yield and spread levels remain high, but market participants have been delighted to see investors throwing their confidence behind new transactions in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.

Latin America bonds may not be immune to the generalised improvement in tone in credit markets this week, but that secondary markets remains dysfunctional and a return to primary market action could be some way away.

Bank of Nova Scotia issued its first dollar covered bond benchmark since 2016 on Wednesday. The deal follows a series of retained Canadian dollar covered bonds that were pledged to the Bank of Canada after it recently broadened repo eligibility to include the asset class.

US president Donald Trump looks unable to lead a global response to the health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but the dollar is unchallenged as the global safe haven in times of crisis. This contradiction is destabilising.

There is a plan to rescue the US economy with a $500bn corporate bailout. At the time of writing, that plan is held up in the US Senate. While the country's president Donald Trump is griping about the delay, it’s a fight worth having. The Republican Party's proposal is woefully short on oversight.

Bank of America has become the first financial institution to launch a new deal in the European credit market for over a month. The US lender paid a huge premium for its €1.5bn senior bond on Tuesday, but it was able to move past its initial price thoughts on the back of a solid set of orders from investors.

Mexican petrochemicals company Grupo Idesa is offering bondholders a collateral package and higher coupon to participate in a bond exchange that would allow it to avoid default later this year.

Radical intervention by central banks around the world to calm markets will help give companies the comfort they need to prepare emergency capital increases to combat the effects of the spread of the coronavirus on their balance sheets, according to equity capital markets bankers.

A rush to dollars in recent days has caused dysfunctions in various corners of the financial markets. The US Federal Reserve has rushed to put out the flames, including with new measures on Monday.

The pace of emerging markets borrowers’ requests for official institution funding, amid the shocking deterioration of their bond markets, is picking up pace. On Sunday, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had discussed using International Monetary Fund resources to fight the economic impact of Covid-19.

Europe's bank funding officials are not certain how their borrowing plans are likely to change but seem agreed there is little point in hitting the primary market until serious liquidity returns, That has given Canada's banks the run of the place with this week with another deal emerging from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on Friday.