Sovereign Credit Commentary

While market capitalisation weighted indices and portfolios have been incredibly popular in recent years, data show that their equally weighted brethren can have an edge with lower concentration risk and better performance.

The wide-ranging management shake up at Deutsche Bank is set to continue after the German lender picked former Goldman Sachs partner Alasdair Warren to lead its new corporate and investment banking unit in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Amid all the talk of an emerging markets “crisis,” credit spreads in the western world took a breather as participants awaited crucial economic data in the U.S.

Peripheral eurozone debt has made a strong start to 2014 and the positive momentum continued with Portugal tapping the capital markets for funds.

Slovenia’s CDS spreads have rallied after the sovereign released results of its asset quality review and stress tests.

The European Central Bank’s role in the rally over the last 18 months is significant, but its inaction and cautious tone at its December meeting helped trigger a minor bout of risk aversion.

Conflicting signals from the world’s two most important central banks kept credit markets in a tight range.

Ireland took a big step towards fiscal normality after it announced that it would make a clean exit from its E.U. bailout.

Credit spreads continued to grind tighter as the favorable monetary policy outlook in the developed world sets the scene for a solid end to the year.

Political stasis in the U.S. weighed on global credit markets as the government shutdown entered its second week.

The Federal Reserve isn’t in the habit of shocking the markets. Back in 1994, when it surprisingly hiked rates, the central bank triggered a major sell-off in the bond markets.

Credit default swap spreads on Nokia more than halved earlier in the week after the surprise announcement that Microsoft will purchase the Finnish firm’s mobile phone business for USD7 billion.