United States

Banks continued to take advantage of the rally in high grade credit as Citigroup and Svenska Handelsbanken printed benchmark trades ahead of the Easter holiday.

A key area of derivatives focus in the planned merger between data firms Markit and IHS will be opening up Markit's credit default swap analysis to IHS corporate clients, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

Credit derivative indices rolled into new series on Tuesday, with traders reporting a big long bias in the outgoing US and European investment grade indices among buyside participants that caused the new series to trade tighter than the level implied by fair value.

Investors continued to pour money into the US corporate bond market this week as March's rally in high grade bonds turned the market positive for the year.

Evofem Holdings, a company backed by Invesco and Woodford Investment Management that is developing woman-controlled, hormone-free contraceptives, has abandoned an attempt to raise up to $200m of new money for the company by floating on Aim.

Credit index options prices have fallen so far following recent central bank moves that implied volatility measures are below trailing measures of realised volatility for the first time in four years.

Derivatives exchanges are broadening their reach in China through futures and options and build the H-shares product suite.

Analysts are touting five year break-evens and calls on correlated currencies to ride US inflation growth.

GlobalCapital is pleased to announce the nominees for its 2016 US Derivatives Awards. Nominations are based upon market feedback and research conducted in recent months. Winners will be unveiled at a gala dinner in New York.

Hutchison China MediTech (Chi-Med) has pocketed $101.25m from its Nasdaq IPO, debuting on the exchange on Thursday. But it had a lukewarm start, dropping 0.74% at the end of its first trading day.

Apple leapt back into the dollar market on Thursday to take advantage of huge levels of demand as investors grabbed for yield and confidence was then boosted further by a dovish statement from the Federal Reserve.

The US Federal Reserve added fuel to an already dramatic rally across asset classes this week, as it scaled back its expectations for rate hikes this year. This came a week after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi had worked the market into a frenzy by increasing the scope of the bank’s asset purchase programme.