North America

The US-led equity rally of the first two months of 2019 is likely to continue, says Eddie Perkin, chief investment officer of Eaton Vance. In an interview with GlobalCapital, he said this should prompt an increase in equity capital markets issuance, and stronger investor returns than many would have expected after a terrible end to last year.

Futu Holdings, parent of Hong Kong-based Futu Securities International, has launched bookbuilding for its potential $130.8m Nasdaq IPO.

Export Development Canada mandated banks on Tuesday for its inaugural euro benchmark, despite the euro/dollar basis swap having moved against euro issuance since the start of year, according to bankers.

Colgate-Palmolive, the US consumer products company, has added to the recent splurge of new reverse Yankee supply with a €1bn dual-tranche that was seven times oversubscribed.

Credit Suisse has promoted a clutch of bankers to senior group roles, with Lydie Hudson joining the group executive board.

Canada’s Barrick Gold has launched an almost $18bn hostile swoop on rival Newmont on Monday, as the wave of consolidation in the gold sector reaches new heights.

Chinese broker Up Fintech, best known for its platform Tiger Brokers, is planning a listing of American Depository Shares (ADS) on the Nasdaq. It wants to raise as much as $150m.

In this round-up, US president Donald Trump extended the March 1 trade negotiation deadline, Bond Connect established an online information platform on the Chinese primary market and the Shanghai Stock Exchange finished soliciting public opinion on tech board rules

Financial institutions have accessed the dollar market with ease this week, but Yankee bank supply has nonetheless remained subdued.

The dollar new issuance market enjoyed a hot streak this week, as a series of blue-chip names took advantage of tightening spreads to cram supply into a holiday-shortened week.

Sparebanken 1 Boligkreditt’s (Spabol) 10 year has the highest covered bond mark of all deals issued by any bank outside the eurozone this year on GC BondMarker. SEB issued the highest scoring Swedish deal and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) issued the best ranking Canadian covered bond this year.

The past week has been the busiest of the year so far in the international segment of the Swiss franc market, with European bank issuers accounting for much of the new issue flow.