Credit sell off picks up pace as lockdown shadows deepen
This week's blow out of credit spreads sharply accelerated today, with mounting coronavirus lockdown fears fuelling a surge wider across the board in tandem with plummeting stocks

IG names hit hardest as cocktail of woes routs market
Investor nervousness is evident at the start of the week with a big widening of spreads on Monday as lack of accord on a new US stimulus package added to concern about rising coronavirus case numbers and jitters in the oil market

Rally puts credit back on even footing but single name volatility persists
A sizeable rally today is putting credit indices back on a flattish footing with where they began the week, adding to the sense the market is finely poised with only six trading days to go before the US presidential election

High yield shorts and basis trades abound as borrowers race to issue
Discrepancies between high yield bonds and CDS could be a rich mine of activity in the coming months, say investors, with volatility set to rise while defaults and late cycle signals avail trading opportunities

Selecta splashes CLOs with bankruptcy credit event
Selecta Group has triggered a bankruptcy credit event, the Emea Determinations Committee has ruled

Tranche traders smell the coffee as Crossover default percolates
Selecta Group looks set to become the third European credit event in as many months to hit series 33 of the iTraxx Crossover index and tranches based on series 32

IG tranches look 'boring' after distressed names ejected at roll
September’s index rolls brought tranche traders some of the starkest portfolio changes in recent years, with fallen angels and defaults shifting correlation dynamics. This creates relative value openings, but investors will take longer to move into new series as they require extra analysis, say dealers.

Tranche market maker jumps to buy-side
BNP Paribas' New York based market maker for credt index tranches has left the bank after seven years 

Europe/US high yield gap re-opens with roll, but raises fair value questions
The semi-annual roll of US high yield index CDX HY has once again put daylight between it and European counterpart iTraxx Europe. But the new series has come in tighter than some market participants had anticipated

European high yield converges on US as credit pushes wider
A worrisome week is ending with spreads pushing to new local wides and underperformance of European high yield versus US credit

Spreads gap wider as slowdown fears sink in
Concern over the gathering coronavirus second wave, economic slowdown and the need for further central bank interventions has pushed credit spreads sharply wider, with yesterday’s US late session downturn spilling over to Asia and Europe

Curves steepen as roll shifts risk from the front end
CDS index curves have steepened with the September roll, with the reformulation of iTraxx and European portfolios having a noticeable impact on the front end of the curve

Index roll brings sea change for US/Europe relative value
The roll of CDS indices to new series has shifted relative value measures between Europe and the US, with CDX indices trading in a tighter context to their new iTraxx counterparts

Credit retreats from tights as central banks offer reality check
European credit is following Asia wider today, picking up from where the US left off yesterday as the Federal Reserve vowed to keep overnight rates near zero for the coming years

Crossover dips below 300bp as retailers leave the basket
The removal of defaulting constituents Hema  and Matalan from iTraxx Crossover has helped take the index to its tightest prints since the start of the coronavirus sell-off

Noble and Hema produce disparate pay outs for CDS
This week has brought the high and lows of CDS settlement, with Noble Corporation bestowing an ultra low high pay-out for protection buyers after Hema protection sellers suffered less of a hit than was modelled by assumed recoveries

Opportunities knock as Credit Dimensions returns in vibrant tranche market
Creditflux will showcase the cutting edge of CDS market developments next week as Credit Dimensions, our annual deep-dive into structured synthetic credit, returns in a virtual format

Ensco does not require credit event auction, says DC
There will be no credit event auction to settle Ensco International CDS since its bonds and CDS are thinly traded, the Americas Determinations Committee has said

Cautious open sets credit at odds with equity
A positive open to the week for European stock markets is not reflected in cautious credit trading, with spreads generally flat to slightly wider

Credit spreads see-saw as US tech slump puts market in reverse
A sharp about-face in sentiment, driven in part by US tech sector weakness, has put credit markets back to more or less where they began the week - having hit new post-covid tights in between

Credit event auctions mount as European resistance breaks
Two constituent defaults in iTraxx Crossover — the first to hit the European on-the-run index in almost two years — have made 2020 the second busiest year ever for credit event auctions

Ensco CDS leap wider on credit event trigger
CDS contracts referencing Ensco International, a Houston based subsidiary of offshore driller Valaris, have shot wider after the Americas Determinations Committee ruled the company has triggered a bankruptcy credit event

HY rallies as curve steepening picks up
Credit spreads may have normalised since the March/April peaks of the coronavirus sell-off, but relative value investors are still finding a wide array of trading dislocations beneath the headline numbers

Financial CDS move points to relative value boost
The credit derivatives market could take an important step towards greater versatility with the 21 September roll, as participants again consider whether to begin including financial names in the CDX IG investment grade index

Hema and Matalan auctions set as DC ponders Ensco credit event
Dates have been set for credit event auctions to settle two constituent defaults in iTraxx Crossover — the first to hit the European on-the-run index in almost two years