North America

The return of retail inflows into the supply starved US high yield bond market has created strong conditions for borrowers so far this year. On Tuesday, energy issuers were the main beneficiaries of the supply-demand imbalance.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME) and Japan Exchange Group (JPX) on Monday announced that Yen-denominated Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX) futures would launch on CME’s Globex platform on February 5.

The passage of the US tax reform bill has helped US high yield spreads contract to their tightest level in ten years in the first two weeks of the year, drawing in borrowers to refinance existing debt and push out their maturity profiles.

US insurers MetLife and New York Life joined seven Yankee bank borrowers in a blistering start to 2018 for the dollar market, despite a snow storm battering the East Coast of the US this week.

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

The sterling covered bond market enjoyed a strong start to the year, with four issuers raising a collective £3.7bn. Barclays priced the first deal of the year, which also happened to be one of the longest and largest.

IHS Markit on Wednesday announced that Lord Browne of Madingley and Nicoletta Giadrossi have joined as board directors of the company, while its president and COO Lance Uggla became CEO on January 1.

After a booming 2017, with record deal volumes across securitized asset classes, S&P Global Ratings has predicted there will be $1tr of issuance across global ABS markets in 2018, driven by sustained economic expansion.

Canadian public sector issuers had a barnstorming year in the international debt markets in 2017, propelled by a strong economic performance by Canada and many of its provinces. But challenges loom — uncertainty over Canada’s trade relationship with the US, geopolitical instability and changing global monetary policy are just three of many concerns that borrowers, bankers and investors in Canada’s public sector bond markets will have to deal with this year. GlobalCapital met key market participants in Toronto in November to discuss the key issues.

Economic conditions are ripe for the mergers and acquisitions that drive capital markets. Into this mix comes a potential US tax reform more radical than any for decades. This is bound to tilt boardroom decisions about strategy — if nothing else, US CEOs could suddenly have more cash back at HQ than they know what to do with. Jon Hay and Sam Kerr report.

Non-US financial institutions have favoured going to the dollar market for unsecured offerings in the first two days of the year, with Crédit Agricole looking to raise tier two capital in the currency on Wednesday.

BNP Paribas opened the new year’s unsecured market on Tuesday with a seven year senior non-preferred deal in dollars, undeterred by a less attractive cross currency basis swap.