This site uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. By using BondbloX, you accept our use of cookies.
US Treasury yields were stable across the curve on Thursday. The final reading of the US Q3 GDP came at 3.4%, higher than both, the prior reading and expectations of 3.2%. Initial jobless claims for the prior week came at 210k, unchanged from the week before that and slightly better than the expected 212k. Credit markets saw the US IG CDS spreads stays flat and the HY spreads widen 2bp. Looking at equity indices, S&P ended higher by 0.1% and Nasdaq lower by 0.1%.
European equity indices closed slightly higher. European IG CDS spreads tightened 0.7bp and crossover spreads were 1.7bp tighter. Asian equity markets have opened in the green today. Asia ex-Japan IG CDS spreads were 1.3bp tighter. China’s PMIs came in stronger than expected for March. The Manufacturing PMI climbed to expansionary territory at 50.8 from 49.1 previously and also higher than expectations of 50.1. The Non-Manufacturing PMI rose to 53.0, higher than both, expectations and the prior reading of 51.5 and 51.4 respectively. The Composite PMI climbed to 52.7 from the prior 50.9.
The BondbloX Team is growing! We’re currently looking for a passionate fixed income sales person who can join our Singapore office and ride the fixed income electronification wave with us.
Our ideal candidate will have 6 to 12 years of experience in cash bond sales / research / product management in exchanges, brokers, banks or EAMs. If you or anyone you know is interested, please write to our co-founder and CEO, Dr. Rahul Banerjee at rahul.banerjee@bondblox.com.
PMIs or Purchasing Managers’ Index are an index composed of a monthly survey of purchasing managers/supply chain managers across industries. This is a diffusion index, a statistical measure of summarizing the common tendency of a series – if there are more number of values rising than falling, the index is above 50 and the index goes below 50 if the falling values exceed those rising. For PMIs, a value below 50 indicates contraction and a value above 50 shows expansion. These surveys are taken over different areas of the supply chain business: New Orders, Employment, Inventories, Supplier Deliveries and Production covering imports, exports, prices and backlogs. In most countries, Markit publishes the PMI numbers while other organizations publish them too. Markit generally publishes the month’s PMIs in last week of the month.
On US Corporate Borrowing Spree Clocking Busiest First Quarter Ever
Matt Brill, head of North America IG-credit at Invesco
“Spreads have been extremely resilient, and actually rallied in the quarter as demand has overwhelmed this record pace”
Robert Schiffman, Bloomberg Intelligence
“High quality debt issuance is back in vogue”
On US inflation moderating; consumer spending underpinning economy
Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial
“Core services inflation is slowing and will likely continue throughout the year. By the time the Fed meets in June, the data should be convincing enough for them to commence its rate normalization process”
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics
“The six drivers of the surge in core inflation in 2021-to-22… have all normalized or are in the process of normalizing, with no real signs of any reversal”
On Spreads for US Junk, Financial Bonds Portend Improved Outlook
Goldman Sachs Credit Strategists
“We also think the continued improvement in macro volatility and low recession risk will likely continue to support a healthy market… We are adjusting our spread forecasts to reflect the rally in the first quarter… the total return performance of high-yield bonds has remained resilient”