Corporate credit performance expected to catch up with financial borrowers as European quantitative easing begins
The return of European Central Bank quantitative easing on 30 October portends a catch up this month of corporate credit performance with other parts of the market, such as financial borrowers, say strategists.

Over 1,200 sign up to CDS protocol
Plans to improve CDS market integrity have received a boost, with the International Swaps & Derivatives Association drawing a stronger than expected response to its protocol aimed at stamping out narrowly tailored credit events (NTCEs).

LCH and Ice prepare to battle it out over options clearing
A fully cleared market for CDS options is getting closer, with the two largest central clearing counterparties (CCPs) set to expand their services.

Roll week leaves CDS in strange places
CDS traders navigate a much-changed landscape in October, after one of the most impactful index rolls in recent times. 

Credit traders' kickstand: Europe ascendant as high yield pipeline returns
The high yield bond primary market grinds back into gear this week just as European credit reaches an extreme point of outperformance over the US, and comes on the back of Europe’s busiest week of investment grade issuance in 18 months

Flat curves and decompression make waves below the surface
Hopes of using the summer slowdown to get to the beach may be tempered for credit relative value traders, where opportunities abound behind the uninspiring benchmark numbers of the slow market grind.

Net short language could force lenders to sell at a loss
Signs are growing that ‘net short’ provisions in bonds and loans are getting closer to hitting CDS investors, with two instances in recent weeks of the language expanding both in geographical and functional remit.

Back to basis (and skew) as relative value plays catch-up
Basis trades between bonds and CDS failed to gain traction during July as synthetic markets held ground or improved their position versus cash, but this is beginning to change, say market participants.

Investors regain nerve to trade the curve
Post-crisis, CDS curve trading languished as an unloved strategy, due to illiquidity outside the five-year tenor. But dealers note resurgent demand for both 3-5 year and 5-10 year positioning, albeit with mixed results.

Credit traders' kickstand: Trump gives Europe the ghoulies as single B spectres haunt CLOs
Trade tariff terrors and things that go triple C rated in the night are top of the list of items spooking credit market sentiment at the end of this week

Ice seeks consensus with credit risk analytics service
Intercontinental Exchange (Ice) has launched ICE Credit Risk, a suite of analytics it will provide in collaboration with financial risk assessment company Credit Benchmark

Reg cap trades spawn a secondary market, but not as we know it
It’s small, and at its early stages, but a secondary market is emerging for risk transfer deals