Retailer jumps on PE rumours while markets stay rooted in Jackson Hole
UK supermarket retailer Sainsbury's has been a notable mover in credit this week, as the wider market waits tentatively on Friday's Jackson Hole movement in the US and fund outflows signal nervousness about US Federal Reserve policy and escalating turmoil in Afghanistan

Chinese credit makes gains as Europe and US slump on Fed taper fears
Chinese credit spreads on Thursday depicted an island of optimism as global credit and stocks - including its own - slumped against a mounting confluence of concerns

Travel co among underperformers as credit gives up gains
European credit is softening away from its recent tights in what is shaping up to be a fourth week of range-bound trading, with credit strategists identifying valuations as a key obstacle to improvement at the index level

Millennium senior tranche trader jumps to Verition
An experienced synthetic structured credit trader has left Millennium Management in New York to join Greenwich headquartered Verition Fund Management

"In some ways, CLOs resemble a quirky, cottage industry more than a trillion-dollar market"
CLO volumes outstanding have passed $1 trillion, but index omission and private placements are holding us back

Loan investors reap windfall from meme stock craze
The so called “meme stock” craze is having a tangible positive impact on certain companies’ loan prices

China teaches tough lessons to foreign investors
China’s regulatory crackdown on some of its fastest-growing industries created shockwaves that have reverberated widely, dragging on US and European credit at the end of July.

US plays catch up with Europe as spreads reconverge
There has been a slight softening of European credit on Tuesday, even as stocks hold onto their record highs and US credit spreads take their chance to close the gap after recent underperformance

Rising stars will fuel double B boom, says BofA
A rising star cycle is underway and adds to a bullish outlook for double B credits with company results pointing to an ‘epic V-shaped recovery’ in high yield revenues and earnings, say Bank of America credit strategists

Triple Bs gain momentum as IG buyers pick best spots
The absolute tightness of credit spreads has led many to lament their chances of delivering strong returns in 2021, while stressing the need to move down either the quality or duration curve. But even within investment grade, European and US managers are still finding pockets of value

Publishing boost for French firm but China sours wider market
Lagardere is a notable positive outlier in another off day for the credit market, after China turmoil rocked stocks and sent spreads wider

Global CLO trading lab: Equity supply spikes as investors go long
CLO equity returned to the secondary market in a big way last week, after a month of very little visibility, with $118.3 million of US CLO and €44.9 million of European CLO subordinated notes on sale

Credit Rendezvous: And breathe...
The unanimous verdict is that credit spreads will be moving wider – they have to. But the difficulty credit fund managers face is predicting when the next sell-off comes and how sharp it will be. In the Q3 instalment of Creditflux’s Credit Rendezvous, the over-riding message from portfolio managers is that there’s little point in taking on too much risk. The report features the views of prominent credit figures including Paul Horvath (Orchard), Himani Trivedi (Nuveen), Ronnie Jaber (Onex), Graham Rainbow (Alcentra) and Michelle Russell-Dowe (Schroders). The report looks at 14 segments of the market including CLOs, direct lending, leveraged loans, distressed debt and credit derivatives.  

US loan managers capture secondary opportunities as new issues struggle
US loan managers switched gears by sourcing loans in the secondary market in the second quarter. This came as pricing in the primary market became less attractive in the early part of Q2 and with new loan issuance slowing in May and June

Credit grind pushes back volatility bets
With recent weeks having all-but crushed volatility from the market, uncertainty about the timing of future risk triggers is leading credit options traders to spurn traditional horizons to focus on longer-dated expiries

Credit slumbers in departure lounge as airline equities take off
Credit and equity markets have been in a balancing act on Tuesday between the positive and negative implications of surging oil prices and Germany opting to relax travel restrictions

Triple Bs in the firing line as Fed turns hawkish, says BofA
Triple B and long duration credit are likely to be casualties of tightening central bank policy, Bank of America strategists have warned. But high yield and cyclical investment grade sectors could fare better

Global CLO trading lab: quality and optionality shine as 2020 and 2019 mezz trades up
The primary and secondary CLO markets are moving in tandem with both markets drifting wider amid a wealth of supply

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

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

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

Global CLO trading lab: Octagon CLO comes out top in CLO double B spike
Double B-rated bonds made up 40% of the European and US CLO secondary markets last week. $222 million of US CLO double B bonds were on sale and a further €105 million of European CLO double B items were listed

Control position in strong 2018 Axa CLO on sale today
$29.2 million of Allegro VII, a 2018 CLO managed by Axa Investment Managers, is on sale today in an all US CLO equity b-wic at 10am EST (3pm UK time). The bond is the fifth US CLO majority equity position to be listed on a b-wic this year

CLOs come up smelling of roses
The coronavirus crisis could have cut back 10 years of CLO market progress, but investors’ foresight, trading chops and flexibility meant many saw their strategies blossom during 2020  

ESG factors show up in leveraged loan pricing in US
Environmental, social, and corporate governance factors are filtering through to the US CLO market and influencing loan prices