United States

With slowing growth in the global economy, and heightened trade tensions between the US and China, the bear case for equities remains very strong as 2019 enters its final stretch. However, there is still a strong bid for convertible bonds, especially deals from the technology sector, according to equity-linked investors.

LiquidityEdge, which operates an electronic marketplace for US Treasuries, could now look at offering a similar service in the European government bond market after its purchase by MarketAxess. The latter’s president, Chris Concannon, sees the pressure European banks face to cut costs as a boon for trading automation in the region.

The US corporate bond market continued to crank out investment grade deals despite fears of a global recession battering risk assets this week.

Market participants are confident that FIG issuance will pick up next week but there are concerns around secondary performance. They are likely to pay close attention to how this week’s deals from Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse fare before marketing their own.

US corporates are turning to convertible bonds to finance themselves while it is still possible to achieve attractive terms, before the economic outlook deteriorates, leading to the best two weeks of issuance volume in 2019.

HSBC’s chief executive was dislodged by the force of the challenges facing the bank. Now, its global markets division is under pressure as senior management continues with reform, writes David Rothnie.

The two to 10 year section of the Gilt market inverted on Wednesday and 30 year US debt yields fell below 2%, strengthening portents that the UK is headed for a recession, though SSA bankers showed no concern about the moves.

Credit Suisse sold a dollar-denominated additional tier one (AT1) bond on Wednesday. Despite hefty demand for the notes, the issuer only revised the pricing by a small margin as market turmoil increased through the day.

Acadia Healthcare, which owns UK mental healthcare provider the Priory Group, needs the consent of lenders if it wants to go through with its plan to sell the company, a research company says. US-based Acadia could be forced to use the proceeds of the sale to deleverage.

Equity capital markets bankers and investors are coming to terms with the idea that there may not be a trade deal to end tensions between the US and China this year, despite the former delaying some of its latest tariffs on Chinese goods until the end of the year.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) bagged Rmb30bn ($4.3bn) through a two tranche trade on Wednesday. It was not the first time the issuer picked a curious time to sell Bills.

Recession fears are rising again as GDP slows, global trade tensions rise and overvalued stock markets become more volatile. Big tech should take advantage of high price to earnings ratios to raise equity capital now and to prepare for tougher days ahead.