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US corporate bond market dries up on Trump tariff volatility
  • April 9, 2025

US corporate bond market dries up on Trump tariff volatility

(Reuters) -U.S. corporate bond market issuances have dried up after opening for just one bond offering on Tuesday, as spreads in the week after President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs widened the most since the 2023 regional banking crisis. Since Trump's tariff announcements exactly one week ago on April 2, corporate bond spreads, or the cost to borrow, have widened to their highest levels in nearly two years. Both investment-grade and junk bond spreads have seen the most one-week widening since the regional banking stress in March 2023 that resulted in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other banks, according to Dan Krieter, director of fixed income strategy at BMO Capital Markets.

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European Stocks Sink as EU, China Retaliate on Trump’s Tariffs
  • April 9, 2025

European Stocks Sink as EU, China Retaliate on Trump’s Tariffs

(Bloomberg) -- European stocks fell to the lowest since January 2024 as the EU and China retaliated with higher tariffs on the US, escalating President Donald Trump’s trade war.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index tumbled 3.5% by the close, with about 97% of its constituents in the red. Health care, energy and real estate stocks fell the most.The European Union approved tariffs on €21 billion ($23.2 billion) of US goods in retaliation for the 25% duties Trump imposed last month on the bloc’s steel and alu

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Analysis: Corporate credit tremors in aftershock of tariff-led stock rout
  • April 9, 2025

Analysis: Corporate credit tremors in aftershock of tariff-led stock rout

The tariff shock and recession fears that have sent world stocks into a tailspin over the last week are rolling into corporate funding markets, raising the cost of borrowing and disrupting financing plans even for lower-risk companies. With U.S. Treasuries nursing huge losses on Wednesday - the strongest sign yet that stress is impacting so-called safe-haven assets - attention has now turned to the $35 trillion global corporate bond market, which has swelled by around 40% since 2008 as companies gorged on cheap debt, OECD data shows. The premium investors demand to hold low-rated corporate credit versus government debt has soared by 100 basis points in a week, the biggest short-term move in so-called global junk bond spreads since the U.S. regional banking crisis in March 2023.

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