United States

Recent actions by the European Central Bank and US Federal Reserve, along with more buoyant commodity prices, have reined in a long running market dislocation, with the basis between credit default swaps and cash bonds having tightened during March.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has slammed the Depository Clearing Corporation’s Derivatives Repository on several counts for delays over data access, but served up a €64,000 fine for the breaches — a figure that amounts barely to an office whipround.

Investments into emerging market equity exchange traded funds have slumped this year, but this has left call structures and outperformance options looking cheap if Chinese capital outflows ease.

Monetary policy and declining oil prices caused unusual currency correlations in recent quarters, say bank analysts, but changes in sentiment around developed market currencies and the prospects for US inflation look set to send those measures back toward normal levels.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) looks set for lengthy deliberation after critics lined up to savage its proposed rule on the use of derivatives. The rule would change the way that mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investment companies measure risk, and would limit their use of derivatives in ways that could have sweeping effects across the investment management industry.

Bond bankers have declared an "open runway" for dollar issuance with the Federal Reserve renewing its dovish tone this week, but market participants have warned that macroeconomic concerns are fully capable of haunting credit markets again.

US biotech firm MaxCyte started trading on London’s junior stock exchange on Tuesday, after raising £10m from its initial public offering.

Western Digital, the US maker of computer hard drives, has widened pricing on its $9.5bn loan package to entice reluctant lenders. The loan will back Western Digital’s $17bn acquisition of SanDisk.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has warned that European supervisory authorities’ decision not to give ground on one day margin collection in their rules for uncleared derivatives will pose big challenges and costs for the buyside, while the deadline to comply in general with the regulation has become a ‘sprint’.

UBS has joined a growing list of European banks ramping up their senior holding company level issuance in 2016, printing a large three tranche deal in dollars as demand for the product surges.

Critics have lined up to savage a proposed Securities and Exchange Commission rule that would change the way that mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investment companies measure risk and limit their use of derivatives in ways that could have sweeping effects across the investment management industry.

The US regulatory framework offers little insight into the riskiness of hedge fund option portfolios, claimed treasury researchers this week, even as the industry reels from its worst year since 2009.