United States

Two deals were priced this week in the European corporate bond market, and next week already looks busier. With a roadshow under way and four others coming up, the window before September’s European Central Bank meeting looks full.

High yield bond portfolios have been left dangerously undiversified under central bank policies, meaning investors have little margin for error, French investor Tobam warned this week, ahead of the Jackson Hole meetings in Wyoming.

The new chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Christopher Giancarlo, chose Bruce Tuckman to succeed Sayee Srinivasan as the regulatory body’s chief economist on Monday.

European corporate bond market participants are expecting supply to start again after the UK bank holiday on August 28. Kimberly-Clark was the first issuer into the pipeline when it announced a European roadshow on Monday morning.

This week Brian Quintenz was sworn in as a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), after he was confirmed alongside chairman Christopher Giancarlo and Rostin Behnam by the Senate two weeks ago.

You are looking to buy an item on Amazon. The first two reviews could not be more contrasting. One is a glowing five star rating. The other is a one star hatchet job. Which do you believe? This was akin to the situation facing investors considering Amazon’s new bond on Tuesday, with Moody’s opinion of the company four notches lower than that of S&P.

Goldman Sachs opened the Swiss market in the middle of the summer holidays on Thursday, selling the largest US financial Swiss franc bond in the last two years — a consequence, bankers said, of clever timing from a respected name.

Amazon dominated US corporate bond issuance this week, but aside from the online retailer’s $16bn jumbo deal, there was over $8bn of paper from five other issuers. However, bankers believe this will be the last week of material supply before the annual two week break in the US market.

Chinese live streaming platform YY tapped the US market this week with a block sale of American Depositary Shares (ADS), capitalising on a surging stock price. Bankers are preparing for a raft of similar block sales — as well as a growing list of US IPOs from Chinese companies. Jonathan Breen and John Loh report.

Indian company Intas Pharmaceuticals is lining up banks to help it fund an acquisition in Europe and the US, turning back to lenders who helped the company pull off a successful takeover earlier this year. But this time around, it has more bargaining power. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

Amazon priced the third jumbo M&A financing bond issue in a month in the US corporate bond market on Tuesday. The $16bn seven tranche package was the fourth-largest new issue of 2017, but the summer of 2017 could signal the high point of M&A related issuance for some time, writes Nigel Owen.

Former investment firm head Brian Quintenz was sworn in as a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Tuesday, providing a much needed boost to the organisation's senior staff.