Nuclear power plant seizure amps up commodity chaos
The high volatility driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine is taking financial markets to new extremes, with credit ending the week once again hitting new widest spreads since mid-2020

Spac pricing hints at Sound Point's growth ambitions in loan market
Sound Point Acquisition Corp has priced a $225 million IPO, signalling that credit asset manager Sound Point Capital Management is looking to expand its platform

Ucits at a glance: 2022 opens shakily but with a familiar lead
Ucits funds moved slowly into 2022 as 59% made negative returns in January

Fund performance: Groundhog Day as 2021 leaders start strong
CLO funds once again claim the most top performing spots as seven out of 10 funds belong to the category

Ukraine crisis takes EU and Russian markets into new territory
Credit spreads went back to the wides again on Monday, after the European Union intensified its pressure on the Russian economy and reached an unprecedented agreement to supply Ukraine with weapons

US CLO fund wins $16 million from San Jose pension
The $5 billion pension awarded the allocation to a manager's fourth US CLO fund, having previously allocated to its second and third fund 

Investors rush to hedge Russia as barrage of threats tee up nervous weekend
The prospect of a flare-up between Russia and Ukraine has left credit spreads back at their recent wide levels going into the weekend, with European investment grade credit particularly feeling the heat following 'false flag' headlines on Friday

Europe leads relief rally with energy and peripheral bank credits outperforming
Credit spreads are making a broad move tighter on Tuesday, with European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde having tried to rein back rate hike expectations and oil company BP posting strong profits

LP round up: two CLO funds win support as Cali pensions home in on private credit
Two investors revealed allocations to European and US CLO funds, private credit allocations increases and private credit consultant searches get underway

Europe/US relative value comes into play amid growing credit outflows
Big successive moves wider are taking credit spreads to new extremes and bringing compression between Europe and the US amid the highest daily market volatility since 2020

Bond pipeline builds as rocky markets thwart supply
Various factors have played into credit spreads widening at the start of 2022, but an over-supply of bond issuance is not one of them — in contrast to what was moving the market this time last year

Performance dispersion hits index equity correlation
Volatility at the start of the year has intensified moves in iTraxx and CDX index tranches, with traders pointing to growing dispersion in performance among constituents as a theme that will bring more focus on equity correlation in 2022

Financial-corporate compression in play as relief rally extends
Credit markets are experiencing a second day of improvement, with financials outperforming corporate borrowers in the investment grade arena

Three-month term Sofr spikes ahead of rate hikes to bridge gap to Libor
Three-month term Sofr rates have shot up in the last few days with sources saying March interest rate hikes are being fully priced in. Three-month Sofr hit 17.11 basis points on Friday having been at 14.52bp on Tuesday and just 9.11bp at the start of the year.

Värde promotes three credit specialists to partner
Värde Partners has promoted Jim Dunbar, Aneek Mamik and Carlos Sanz Esteve to partner

Natixis IM to sell stake in Canadian asset manager Fiera
Natixis Investment Managers is selling all 10.68 million class A subordinate voting shares it holds in Canada's Fiera Capital

Blackstone secures $8.75 billion for lending fund
Blackstone Credit has collected $8.75 billion on the final close of its latest credit opportunities fund, Blackstone Capital Opportunities Fund IV, above its $7.5 billion target

US pensions assign $1.5 billion to 16 credit managers in December
US public pensions rounded off 2021 by gifting credit managers around $1.5 billion in commitments, according to documents seen by Creditflux

BC closes $1.2 billion second special opportunities fund 12 months’ incubation
BCP Special Opportunities Fund II has collected $1.2 billion in capital commitments - but a year later than it originally earmarked a final close

Fund performance: CLO funds deliver again, but third of all funds post losses
CLO funds took six of the top 10 spots in October in a continuation of the previous month’s strong performances. However, a consistent showing from Wasserstein in the US high yield category has claimed the top spot for the last two months

Relative value traders seize on fleeting mismatches
The volatility that hit credit markets from mid-November has produced rare opportunities for relative value traders after a dearth for 12 months

Credit Fundraising: mega funds contribute to record-breaking month as volume hits $39bn
The sheer size of the funds raised in November more than compensated for a drop in the number of funds raised as fundraising volume in credit reached $38.9 billion. This beat September by $2.4 billion to make it the most productive month of credit fundraising in 2021

US leads charge in strong relief rally
Credit markets have entered a relief rally on rising optimism the omicron covid variant will not prove as severe as had been feared

US extends broad hit on credit but German resi giant faces personal dramas
Travel related companies are among those hit hardest in credit as the Tuesday sell off deepens with the US trading session, but investors in German real estate company Adler have endured a torrid day as they digest its third quarter results

Traders hunt for Monday bargains in Black Friday debris
The turmoil of Black Friday has given way to a counter-wise move on Monday, with financial markets latching onto scraps of hope over the weekend following the panic of a newly discovered covid-19 variant