Euro issuance took centre stage this week as US dollar markets continued to succumb to the volatility caused by the inversion of the yield curve and increasing fears over inflation and interest rate rises. Fed chairman Alan Greenspan took a hawkish stance in his Humphrey-Hawkins testimony on Thursday, suggesting interest rates would soon rise further. Meanwhile, swap spreads continued to drift wider - an uneasy background for issuers such as KfW and the Kingdom of Spain, both looking to issue globals soon.
February 18, 2000