United States

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp has blown open the equity-linked market with the launch of a $5bn bond exchangeable into shares of Alibaba Group Holdings, part of a planned $7.9bn sell-down in the e-commerce giant’s stock.

A key measure of US market volatility has hit its lowest point for a year, suggesting traders are counting on the recent calm to continue, with no shocks or surprises.

As the state of Illinois faces one of the worst budget standoffs in its history, some lawmakers are proposing a tax on derivatives that one advocate called the "single-bullet solution”.

Property developer Frasers Centrepoint is likely to begin bookbuilding on Friday for a potential S$900m ($651.5m) real estate investment trust IPO in Singapore, a source close to the deal told GlobalCapital Asia.

Walgreens Boots Alliance unveiled a five trancher on Thursday as it looked to tie up the acquisition financing for its $17bn purchase of Rite Aid ahead of the holiday weekend, following a bumper month for issuance in the US high grade bond market.

Bayer and Monsanto are circling each other as they both seek acceptable terms for a merger that would create a world leader in crop science. For the equity capital markets, the deal holds out the possibility of one of the world’s largest ever rights issues.

Additional tier one paper took centre stage in the FIG market this week, with risk appetite firmly back on and new supply set to ramp up in the coming sessions.

Brent and WTI oil futures have risen to above $50 for the first time since November and July respectively, amid bullish short term positioning by aggressive managers and supportive supply data this week. But while traders called this a ‘psychological’ level for the commodity, physical markets are still sounding a note of caution.

The US has finally engaged with the internationalisation of the renminbi after years of stubbornly ignoring the currency’s rise. Market participants have welcomed the Rmb617m ($94.15m) worth of instruments issued by the New York branches of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), but say the developments are long overdue. Rev Hui reports.

Credit Suisse has promoted its head of US leveraged finance capital markets to vice chairman of acquisition and leveraged finance capital markets, which is a recently created role.

US banks face tighter but potentially confusing restrictions on booking swaps business overseas, say lawyers, after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted a rule that applies multi-faceted criteria to applying cross-border margining requirements on uncleared swaps.

Intercontinental Exchange has promoted a long-serving senior official at the firm to chief technology officer.