United States

Goldman Sachs and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust showed on Tuesday that it is possible to place bonds in the market backed by other rated debt with recourse back to the issuer – and that it was possible to do so at an advantageous spread to a differentiated group of investors. Though abhorred by some covered bond stalwarts, the deal suggests a potentially new funding avenue and a new source of highly rated debt for investors.

Procter and Gamble, the US consumer goods company, brought a €1.25bn bond issue to the European market on Tuesday, bringing life to an otherwise moribund reverse Yankee market.

Euronext has launched AtomX, a service that offers central clearing for bilaterally negotiated derivatives trades that would otherwise have been over the counter.

Trad-X, the trading platform for global interest rate derivatives, reported on Monday that is has traded more than $2.5tr of swaps since launch, with 2015 having accounted for over half this volume.

In this round-up, the Swiss franc set to become directly convertible with RMB, CCB gets a Zurich branch, QDII2 could launching in Shanghai FTZ, booming RMB trade in Korea, Los Angeles tries to get the edge, DBS launches in Qingdao to leverage Belt and Road plans, and CSOP launches two new China ETFs in New York.

US cruise ship operator Carnival Corp has announced that it will roadshow for a potential bond offering that would mark its return to the euro market after a nine year hiatus.

US federal regulators have approved a rule that will impose greater margin requirements on swaps that are not cleared through a clearing house, but have amended it to be less onerous for some transactions.

Fears that a disruptive weather pattern is forming in the Pacific Ocean look set to increase volatility in agricultural and energy markets, but the impact is unlikely to influence futures prices in the near-term.

Borrowers enjoyed tight pricing in the US market this week, as a sharp drop in supply helped bring stability to the market and triggered a fall in new issue premiums.

Teva, the New York-listed Israeli pharmaceutical company, held a meeting with banks on Wednesday for the syndication of $33.75bn of loans to buy generic drug business Allergan Generics.

Wells Fargo printed an impressive second Swiss franc deal for the year on Thursday, attracting strong demand not only from retail and private banking investors but also asset managers, insurance and pension funds.

Options and futures markets in gold and other precious metals have paused in their recent rally, in advance of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on October 27-28.