Credit PMs remain gloomy in latest IACPM survey
Survey participants in the latest IACPM Credit Outlook Survey believe the euphoria seen in global financial markets during the last few months of 2023 was overdone

Fund performance
Positive August for credit sees CLO funds on top again

So long! US high yield index jumps tighter with roll from old to new series
Credit spreads have retraced tighter on Tuesday, after two days of heavy selling pressure, as investors in US high yield index CDX HY get set for its roll into a new series

Ucits at a glance: Robus stands tall among Ucits funds
27% of Ucits funds had positive returns in March, a slight improvement from 10% in February

Phase 6 of uncleared margin rules drives CDS clearing volumes
2022 is shaping up to be a bumper year for CDS clearing activity, not only due to increased trading of the asset class, but a confluence of other factors, such as regulations, product expansion and wider geographical reach

Credit rally extends as investors welcome hawkish but clearer Fed message
Credit markets have carried their rally over to another day, fuelled in part by what investors have interpreted as a hawkish but clear message from the US Federal Reserve on policy tightening

Euro volatility outpaces US with pivotal hours ahead in Ukraine
Financial markets took another battering on Tuesday, as Russia's war with Ukraine ramped up and western countries moved to enact new sanctions

Post-CPI relief rally gives way to bears as reality bites
A bearish tone has returned to financial markets in the latter part of the week, despite investors seemingly taking in stride the highest US inflation growth numbers for almost 40 years

Ucits at a glance: Robus and Altana dip but stay at the top
In October, Ucits funds continued a slide that had begun the previous month with 60% of them in the red

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

Reality check for credit as omicron research timeline extends
Another dose of harsh reality has sunk into financial markets on Tuesday, as investors continue to reappraise the impact of tightening travel restrictions and the timeline for pharmaceutical work to address the omicron covid-19 variant

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

Investors take deep breath ahead of US jobs report
Credit and equity markets are taking a cautious pause ahead of Friday's much-watched US jobs data, which could provide new context for discussions on central bank support for assets in the coming weeks

French foodco CDS jumps on bond offering
Picard, the French frozen foods company, is a big underperformer in credit markets on Monday, as it limbered up to bring a triple-tranche bond deal

It's all relative: CLO spreads explore record tights as credit indices hit impasse
CLO spreads are grinding to ever tighter levels, despite a flattish week for credit in which corporate credit indices have ended up more or less unchanged

It's all relative: CLOs are lagging no more, as Carlyle deal drags market tighter
“CLOs are lagging” has been a much repeated refrain over the last nine months. But Carlyle Group has this week produced a US CLO that has dragged spreads to their tightest point in three years so that, rather than comparing CLOs to pre-covid levels, they should be assessed against early 2018

Europcar CDS auction shocks protection buyers with zero pay-out
Wednesay's auction to settle Europcar Mobility Group CDS has left protection buyers on the company with nothing to show for their investments and hedges, after dealers produced an unexpected 100% recovery on contracts due to a technical mismatch in bids and orders

It's all relative: Euro CLO mezz rallies to follow month-long IG/HY compression
European credit suffered this week with Brexit talks between the UK and the EU dragging on and both sides conceding that a trade deal is unlikely to be reached by Sunday’s deadline. But European CLO tranches have held up reasonably well with mezzanine spreads tightening by almost 13% in December

Europe leads corporate credit rally, but US outperforms in CLOs
iTraxx Crossover has been the CDS market's outperformer this week, tightening over 30 basis points, or 11.4%, to trade at 235bp today. But in the CLO market, US deals have come out on top thanks to a BlackRock CLO that priced its double Bs at some of the tightest levels this year

Compression plays out as HY and European CLO double Bs outperform
Investment grade and high yield credit spreads have tightened in sync with each other this week, but CDS and CLOs alike underline that the big theme over the past month has been compression between investment grade and high yield

Single name shorters get improved entry point after conviction test
Returning market optimism has taken credit spreads back to ultra-tight levels. But for bears, this posits a better entry level for short trades, and the recent blow-out may have given strong pointers where to target them

Credit fundraising: distressed keeps in favour but CLO ETFs emerge
Five months into global lockdown and distressed debt funds are still proving popular, but several managers have found success pitching other types of credit strategies

Matalan becomes first Crossover index default in over year
Matalan, the UK based retailer, is the first default to hit the on-the-run series of Europe's iTraxx Crossover index, with the Determinations Committee ruling it has triggered a bankruptcy credit event

CSOs start printing again with new money ready to invest
The synthetic bespoke market is putting behind it the turmoil of recent months, with a pipeline of new CSO transactions starting to price and a swelling supply of new money lining up to invest.

Fund performance: Credit funds post double-digit gains
June returns have once again been led by CLO funds, as seven out of the top 10 belong to our CLOs category.