It's all relative: CLOs march tighter as macro traders open positive CDS skews
Credit default swaps are back near where they started the year after giving up their early-February gains amid a rise in government bonds. CDS curves steepened over the past month and macro hedging has left indices trading with positive skews. But CLOs paint a calmer picture in which spreads have inched tighter  

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

It's all relative: senior CLO tranches tighten 18% in Europe as CDS indices sit out rally

US looks for stronger open after sell off
US credit is opening slightly stronger on Thursday, after its sharp Wednesday rout, prompted by Federal Reserve messaging, carried over forcefully into Asian and European markets

Credit Rendezvous: heading for homes
Fund managers in structured credit, real assets and distressed are bullish on the prospects for residential housing in 2021. Elsewhere, niche royalty-based strategies are in favour and although a CLO repricing wave is expected, it may not be easy to execute resets. For more, read our 13-page quarterly report on credit. 

Convexity pushes high yield bond basis to the forefront
Compression had become the watchword of the market as Creditflux went to press, providing justification for high yield versus investment grade macro plays, wide-end long positioning and selective tight-end shorts. But the more important driver, say some relative value investors, was convexity

Zombies demand brain work from tranche traders
Outperformance of junior tranches and underperformance of senior was the big theme in CDS index tranches going into December. But the picture began to change as Creditflux went to press

Little room to move in IG’s vice-like grip
The absolute tightness of credit has left investment grade specialists a tough challenge to find value in the coming year, with neither scope for spread improvement nor encouragement to go short

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

European CLOs rise in secondary with Sound Point deal up 4.25 cents from issuance
Double-B rated CLO tranches received bids in the high 90s on Wednesday with Sound Point Capital Management’s debut European CLO attracting the highest cover of 98.25 cents on the euro. But the CLO rally is lagging moves in corporate credit  

IG and crossover indices converge while European CLO double Bs rally
iTraxx Crossover is again outperforming Main today with the investment grade index widening 0.11bp to 52.56bp while the crossover index is 2.42bp tighter to 296.99bp. Meanwhile bank research signals that junior CLO tranches could benefit as investors look at covid industries through a different lense 

European CLO double Bs jump wider amid October macro worries - but seniors stand firm
The fortunes of investment grade and high yielding European CLO tranches have gone in opposite directions in the last month. In a year where relative value has shifted several times, Creditflux analysis shows that new issue European CLO double Bs have blown out by 16.5% in October versus September, while triple A-rated notes have tightened 6.7% in that time

Credit rally rolls on as indices approach one-month tights
CDS indices are approaching their mid-October tights as reality seeps in of a divided US government and, consequently, little chance of dramatic corporate tax increases. Yesterday, iTraxx Main led the way, tightening 5.3%, followed by CDX NA HY and CDX IG (both 4.5%) and iTraxx Crossover (2.8%)

US credit shakes off early jitters as CDX IG tightens 6.9%
Credit spreads have reversed course yet again to join the rally in equities today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.5% today and credit is following with investment grade indices leading the way

Indices retrace wider as contested election scenario looms
Credit is moving wider this morning as a contested US presidential election looms. This comes as incumbent Donald Trump threatened to go to the US Supreme Court in the early hours of this morning, citing election fraud and calling to stop votes being counted

Single names join rally as positive skews persist in Europe
Single name CDS has joined the rally with European credit moving tighter this morning to continue the momentum from Monday. iTraxx Main is trading 2.1 basis tighter at 61.1bp today, according to IHS Markit, having shed 1.9bp yesterday. Similarly, iTraxx Crossover at 348.2bp has tightened 9.7bp today after tightening 9.1bp yesterday

European credit takes lockdown restrictions in its stride as indices tighten
European credit spreads have held firm this morning despite the re-emergence of lockdown measures with the UK government announcing on Saturday that new restrictions will come into play on 5 November

Credit spreads wind back to February to bring shorts into focus
The credit rally since April has opened up an opportunity to go short credit, say fund managers, with spreads back to where they were in late February

Investors get creative with new ways to trade the curve
Credit index curve trading is gaining new features going into August, evidencing deeper liquidity for CDS strategies, but also that investors already have one eye on the upcoming September rolls.

Rampant technicals push cash and CDS in different directions
Central bank interventions, primary market issuance and high yield defaults have conspired to create major distortions in credit performance, which sources say are ripe for opportunistic trading.

US and Europe diverge on credit spreads and more
US and European corporate credit performance has diverged since cities went into lockdown in March, with Europe tending to do better. But the CLO market gives a different picture, with 17 US transactions pricing to four in Europe since 1 April, and with tighter investment grade spreads

‘Hoard credit’ says PM as markets swing
As Creditflux went to press, the covid-19 death toll in Italy surged by 700 after two days of slowing, and the US congress agreed a $2 trillion stimulus package.