Banks are reaping the benefits of a trading boom in precious metals, as heightened volatility and surging client volumes deliver a bumper payday for commodities traders.

JP Morgan expects the investment banking and trading boom to continue in the current quarter. 

Canadian banks started the year off right – breaking revenue records driven by investment banking and trading gains, and committing to support their country’s defence buildup in the face of a global trend towards increased security spending. 

Demand for newly issued bonds has never been as strong, according to a new analysis from Barclays, as a broader set of investors piling into corporate credit in recent years has made it easier than ever for companies to borrow money in public debt markets.

Credit market participants are hopeful that bond issuance will resume in the coming days after the war in the Middle East caused issuers to stand down on Monday, though there are fears that prolonged disruption to the March pipeline could create a supply bottleneck for corporates. 

Middle East bonds are wider across the board in early European trading, with desks receiving a flurry of selling requests.

The Government of Mongolia has set initial price guidance for a US dollar six-year bond at 6.3% area. 

With US and Israeli missile strikes on Iran and the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei keeping all other issuers in a wait-and-see holding pattern, it fell to a lone Swiss real estate group to fly the flag for new bonds on Monday. 

The reception of Lloyds Bank’s latest Dutch RBMS underscored that there is sustained investor appetite for Dutch collateral and the broader positive tone surrounding European securitisations. 

The Financial Conduct Authority’s plan to ease red tape and simplify the UK securitisation regime has been welcomed by market participants, who see the regulator's moves as helping kickstart a revival in an industry that has yet to return to pre-financial crisis highs.

Refinancings and resets that dominated the European CLO primary market at the start of the year are finally giving way to new issue CLOs. The dynamic has flipped, as CLO spreads push wider in the face of AI-fuelled jitters in the software industry, making resets and refis less economically appealing for managers. 

A sale of Spanish auto loans from Stellantis’ Spanish unit received a strong reception last week, boding well for the first Italian securitisation deal this year – originated by Hyundai Capital.  

The International Finance Corp has signed a US$6bn insurance-backed facility that marks the World Bank Group member’s largest single mobilisation of private capital. 

Legal & General is committing as much as US$1bn to credit-enhanced emerging markets development investing that will include both sovereign debt-for-development swaps and new structures. 

Green bonds are off to a strong start in 2026 with US$84.4bn issued globally this year, showing a healthy 12% increase on the US$75.7bn issued at the same time in 2025, according to LSEG data. 

Three companies have recently reported missing 2025 targets on sustainability-linked bonds in what is expected to be a "watershed year" for the instrument that will provide insight into the energy transition, according to research by the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute. 

Asian IPOs are continuing to move forward despite increased market volatility following the attacks by the US and Israel on Iran over the weekend.

French construction company Vinci has capitalised on a strong run in Groupe ADP shares by issuing a €500m five-year exchangeable bond into the Paris airport operator in which it has an 8% stake.

Bangkok-listed Minor International is working with Citigroup and DBS on a Singapore Exchange real estate investment trust IPO of up to S$700m (US$553m) in the second half of this year, people with knowledge of the transaction said.

Medtronic is moving ahead with plans to carve out its MiniMed Group diabetes unit by launching a Nasdaq IPO on Tuesday that would value the fast-growing subsidiary at up to US$7.86bn.

Business assurance and inspection services provider LRQA Group has released price talk for its new loan in a sign that the European leveraged markets are ploughing on despite US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

A JP Morgan-led bank group has begun premarketing more than US$5bn of debt to back software provider Qualtrics’ acquisition of healthcare analytics company Press Ganey Forsta, testing investors' appetite for technology risk when confidence in the sector is under pressure.

The biggest leveraged buyout ever could start out with a blemish after most bondholders of Electronic Arts declined the company’s offer to buy back their notes at a discount to par.

Blue Owl Capital's business development companies, already under pressure from market-wide concerns about weaknesses in private credit, are now facing a new challenge from activist investors. 

Full-year earnings from European banks – Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale and UBS – showed them broadly holding market share in the markets’ business, but struggling to capitalise on the upswing in investment banking. 

The repo market is the heartbeat of bond markets. Like a real heartbeat, when all is well, there is nothing more boring. But when things go wrong … watch out.

The AI boom has been backed by investor enthusiasm – and their money – on an unprecedented scale. Investment bankers have high hopes of a huge year for deals. But just like the broader economy, will this be a K-shaped market for tech deals?

How stable is a stablecoin? That is a question that S&P attempts to answer via its Global Ratings’ Stablecoin Stability Assessment, a product designed to quantify a stablecoin’s ability to maintain its peg to a fiat currency. It produces a score from 1, very strong, to 5, weak.