Reality bites after credit traders abandon Brexit hedges
Rediscovered faith in the ability of the UK and European Union to reach an agreement before the 31 October Brexit deadline has helped fuel a surge tighter of credit spreads, led by UK financial names. But that break with caution faces an immediate reality check today, following admissions a lot more work is needed

Credit traders' kickstand: curves in focus as market overcomes mid-week wobble
Credit markets have had a more positive week overall than last, and that was given a couple of extra twists today by UK/European Union and US/China talks. But this masks weakness mid-week and, following a brief steepening of curves, improvement is mainly exhibited by financial sector names

NNIP's private debt head moves to private equity job
The team leader for direct lending, loan portfolio financing and non-performing loan securitisations at NN Investment Partners has moved to a senior private equity job at AnaCap Financial Partners

Credit traders' kickstand: trade troubles threaten volatility "sooner than you think"
Most of the credit market goes into the coming week in a more nervous mood than it began this week, with hopes for the resuming US-China trade talks tempered by the US’s opening of a new front with Europe on trade

Boeing/Airbus dogfight widens spreads as WTO ruling exposes Europe's trade weaknesses
The World Trade Organisation’s go-ahead for the US to impose $7.5 billion of tariffs on imports from the EU has sent credit spreads sharply wider. And, according to latest credit research from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, it exposes Europe’s “Achilles heel”

Roll week leaves CDS in strange places
CDS traders navigate a much-changed landscape in October, after one of the most impactful index rolls in recent times. 

Ucits at a glance
A round-up of ucits fund performance

Political risk puts December in focus as CDS investors play index volatility
Selling implied volatility has been prominent among CDS investors since last month’s iTraxx and CDX index rolls, says BNP Paribas in a research piece, with December a popular point of focus for trades

Mediobanca hires former credit derivatives trading head
Mediobanca has hired an experienced credit trader to its office in Milan

Schroders appoints head of sustainable credit
The hire, Schroders anticipates, will "deliver the very best in ESG credit investment solutions for clients"

BlueBay launches global leveraged finance fund
BlueBay Asset Management has launched a global leveraged finance fund that is able to allocate towards high yield bonds, leveraged loans, structured credit and investment grade assets

Go long CLO triple-A and pick cash bonds over CDS, says JP Morgan
Going long European CLO triple A paper remains one of JP Morgan strategists’ favourite trades following the European Central Bank stimulus announcement last week, despite these tranches having rallied 14bp on average since the bank first backed them. They also predict cash credit to outperform CDS

China ambitions checked in final roll lists for iTraxx and CDX indices
The index roll lists for iTraxx Europe, iTraxx ex-Japan and CDX EM, have all undergone a rethink since IHS Markit published provisional lists earlier this week, with final lists showing name changes

Draghi sends European credit to 2019 tights, as Trump demands Fed response
European investment grade credit – and particularly the financial sector – surged tighter today as European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, in the penultimate meeting of his reign, unveiled a ‘whatever it takes’ stimulus

US spreads reconverge on Europe as traders hold breath for ECB
Credit markets are finely poised ahead of today’s meeting of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt today, with some positivity around US-China tariff talks allowing US spreads to gain ground as European expectation remains tempered by German recession fears

Deutsche Bank reshuffles European capital markets business
Deutsche Bank has reshuffled its European capital markets business, dividing both its leveraged finance and debt capital markets units by origination and syndication

iTraxx and CDX roll provisional lists reveal effects of index overhauls
Eagerly awaited provisional lists are out for this month’s index CDS rolls, with big changes signalled across iTraxx and CDX products

CDS data snapshot: central bank positioning and index rolls drive flows
Welcome to the inaugural run of what will become a weekly insight into credit derivatives trading. Each week, Creditflux will highlight trends and dynamics from most recently available market data. We welcome feedback on measures of the market readers would like to see here in future

Credit traders' kickstand: Financials lead compression as pre-ECB and index roll bulldozers flatten spreads
Caution does not appear to be an operative word in financial markets ahead of next week’s key European Central Bank meeting, with financial names leading the way as credit spreads return to this year’s tightest levels and stocks ascend towards post-crisis peaks

Four sectors most favoured by bullish resumption of QE, say BAML strategists
Autos, healthcare, media and real estate bonds are likely to be the biggest initial beneficiaries if the European Central Bank reinvigorates its corporate sector purchase programme (CSPP) next week, say Bank of America Merrill Lynch credit strategists

Man uses inflation as key input for asset allocations
Man Group has developed a ‘fire and ice’ framework which it is using to shape allocations across multi-asset funds. The system is based on the idea that inflation is the single-most important factor driving portfolio returns over the long-term. 

Esma publishes final guidelines for alternative and Ucits fund liquidity stress-test
Fund managers have just over a year to comply with liquidity stress test final guidelines published yesterday by the European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) for alternative investment funds (AIFs) and undertakings for the collective investment in transferable securities (Ucits)

LCH's French unit adds first Japanese clearing member
Mizuho has signed up as the first Japanese clearing member of LCH SA, the French clearing unit of London Stock Exchange-owned LCH Group

Credit traders' kickstand: Europe ascendant as high yield pipeline returns
The high yield bond primary market grinds back into gear this week just as European credit reaches an extreme point of outperformance over the US, and comes on the back of Europe’s busiest week of investment grade issuance in 18 months

Green bonds and international credit deliver double-digit returns for Swedish pension
Second Swedish National Pension Fund (AP2) reached SEK 367.4 billion in the first half of 2019, with investments in fixed income generating double-digit returns, according to its half year report