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

Pizza Express auction date set with two bonds on initial list
Pizza Express 2014-version CDS contracts will be settled at auction on 1 October, following the UK food retailer’s triggering of a failure-to-pay credit event this month

Banks regain composure to lead rallying charge
Financial names are among today's outperformers, reversing the trend of the early part of this week, as credit spreads return tighter

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

Fallen angels and financials feel heat as CDS indices roll
CDS indices are rolling into new contracts today, with outgoing series of iTraxx Europe and Crossover widening sharply from the market’s open on technical as well as fundamental factors

Green credit advocate launches research body
Stockholm-based portfolio manager and green credit advocate Ulf Erlandsson has today announced the launch of research body Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute (AFII)

Brevan Howard raids ExodusPoint for credit derivative specialists
Brevan Howard has hired credit derivative specialists from ExodusPoint Capital Management with a view to expanding in credit options

Europcar slumps closer to default pricing in bonds and CDS
Europcar, the French car hire firm, is heading fast towards recovery-only levels with CDS and bond prices reflecting deeper distress

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

Matalan auction initial bids point to lower than expected CDS pay out
Early bidding in a credit event auction today to settle CDS referencing UK retailer Matalan indicates the final result will be higher than predicted by recent five-year quotes but roughly in line with modelled recoveries

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

Palm Lane launches credit relative value fund with $200 million after PM hires
Palm Lane Capital has raised about $200 million for a global credit relative value hedge fund, which went live on 1 September

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

Pizza Express triggers failure-to-pay credit event
Pizza Express has triggered a failure-to-pay credit event, the Emea Determinations Committee has ruled

Europcar restructuring plans send bonds and CDS into skid
Europcar Mobility Group's bonds have plummeted and CDS referencing them have gapped wider after the French car hire firm said it will open talks with creditors about a debt restructuring

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

Pizza Express serves up credit event question after very long wait
Pizza Express has been proposed as a failure-to-pay credit event to the Emea Determinations Committee, following the UK food retailer's decision not to make interest payments on bonds

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

Dislocation and costly payment debacle highlight loan tech lag
Coronavirus-led dislocation in the leveraged loan market, as well as a bank’s recent claims of human error in making a large loan payment, underscore the industry’s need to embrace long-overdue efficiency improvements

Hema and Matalan deliverable lists outline payouts for CDS
Only one bond looks to be deliverable into a credit event auction to settle Hema CDS contracts, while two notes will be deliverable into Matalan CDS contracts