Axa IM extends palm oil policy to cover ecosystem protection and deforestation
Axa Investment Managers says it is expanding its 2014 policy of excluding investments in companies which do not have sustainable palm oil production certificates by factoring in deforestation and ecosystem protection

Ex-NatWest Markets CLO structuring head lands on buy side
A European credit manager has hired Luca Giancola for the "repositioning of its private structured credit business"

Credit indices hit impasse after US high yield returns to pre-covid tights
Credit improvement looks to be taking a breather on Thursday after the compression play in CDS indices took US high yield index CDX HY to its tightest prints since February 2020, before the outbreak of covid-19 began to blow out spreads

Shipping firm adds buoyancy amid few signs of choppiness in credit
CMA CGM, the French container shipping company, is a big mover today amid very calm waters elsewhere in credit.

BlueBay hires Germany/Austria institutional sales official in new role
BlueBay Asset Management has tapped a former bfinance official as head of institutional sales Germany and Austria, a newly created job

Novicap tech platform targets credit investors with fundraising drive
Novicap, a fintech company offering working capital optimisation solutions to SMEs and mid-market corporates, is looking to debt capital markets participants such as credit and structured credit funds, asset managers, pension companies and insurers as it seeks to raise third-party funding for its credit platform

"In the afternoon I awoke from a pile of willow leaves to discover we had created a Welsh ether-based token"
A localised crypto-currency boom and bust cycle teaches Welshcake (again) that everything becomes correlated in a downturn  

Focus shifts to macro views amid blurry relative value picture
Relative value trading has become a difficult place to operate in credit, with previously effective strategies such as compression, pairs and basis hard to discern and opportunities difficult to source, according to portfolio managers. 

Single Bs bomb as beta narrative shifts
Few signalled themes in credit have died away as quickly as that of the outperformance of single B rated credit, which several firms proposed at the start of May but soon found crushed by a cocktail of worries around inflation, central bank policy, supply and high yield fund outflows

Past returns: Having a whale of a time in tranches
In Creditflux 10 years ago we reported on JP Morgan’s “little known prop book” making waves in index tranches

Equity tranche longs fall out of favour as spreads tighten and dispersion picks up after uniform moves
Dispersion is picking up after relatively uniform moves in credit in the early part of 2021. CDS index equity tranches had outperformed for much of this year but spreads have gapped out a touch in the past few weeks

Fund performance: CLO funds outperform as two hit over 100% 12-months return
CLO funds swatted away the competition in April on their way to dominating our top 10 credit hedge fund return table after an upbeat month

Credit bull run picks up amid commodities surge
European credit spreads have made a sharp turn for the tighter, building on last week's strong run, even after Asian spreads weakened on rising commodity costs

Meag hires experienced credit specialist for top fixed income job
€328 billion asset manager Meag has appointed a head of active fixed income in Munich to oversee a range of assets including credit

Credit grind makes it five days out of five in bullish week
Credit markets are heading into the weekend on a fifth straight day of improving spreads, amid signs of returning economic confidence and appetite to invest in the asset class

French equipment rental firm gets big lift on Q1 results
Loxam, one of the widest trading names in the iTraxx Crossover universe, is leading index constituent tighteners on Wednesday after posting first quarter results showing improvement in revenue and ebidta

Financials and high yield outperform as rally gathers momentum
Credit spreads are enjoying a second day of improvement to regain some of the ground they lost last week, with Italian banks, commodity traders and higher yielding borrowers among outperformers in a broad rally of both indices and single name borrowers

CLOs' favourite telco jumps tighter following strong results
French telco Altice is in focus on Friday as credit puts thoughts of a broader directional trade on hold

Climate change pair trade delivers as oil companies' CDS widens
A climate change pair trade proposed by Anthropocene in March has come good with Norwegian oil company Equinor’s CDS outperforming Total, a French oil company

Commodity inflation sends Asia spreads back to wides
Asian credit and stocks added to a rough few days with further sell offs on Thursday, outpacing deterioration in other regions

Sell-off regathers momentum as inflation signals mount
A glum mood has returned to financial markets, beginning with the US session on Tuesday and overspilling into global trading on Wednesday

Financials and high yield corps retrace tighter after inflation shake out
Credit markets firmed up on Tuesday, with European single name CDS finding a chance to recover some ground after Monday's inflation-led weakness. But credit indices underperformed, struggling to return tighter even as stock indices advanced once again and oil prices hit new highs

Credit underperformance resumes as equity turns corner
Credit markets are pushing wider once again on Wednesday, even though stock markets look to regaining some composure following Tuesday's steep sell off

Single Bs and periphery in favour as European HY market deleverages: BofA
Single B, periphery, leisure, retail and services high yield credit all look to offer value, amid indications the European market is deleveraging quicker than expected

Fairwater eyes tranches and options as prospects ‘multiply’
Fairwater Capital is looking to capitalise on rising credit volatility by crafting a strategy that makes full use of the growing number of products in the credit derivatives industry