F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” For observers of the capital markets, this quote is especially apt. Today’s cross-currents are bewildering. Unemployment is up, yet the number of people finding…
As hard as it is to grasp, one-twelfth of the year is already over. For the few of our readers who are goal-oriented, that means if you haven’t started adding good investments to your portfolio, your work for the next eleven-twelfths is harder. The good news is that conditions for deal making remain propitious. Rates are…
“I believe in being fully transparent,” we told our spouse, negotiating NFL playoff viewing rights this past weekend. “It’s working,” she said. “I can see right through you.” In that same spirit of confession, your correspondent reminds readers of last week’s forecast regarding fund flows. We predicted outflows from retail loan accounts, which had been…
So bemoaned one friend from a broadly syndicated loan desk on Monday. We get it. As we covered in our first column of the year last week, there’s been enough to-ing and fro-ing in liquid markets in the past half-month to already fill your 2019 diary. Such is the nature of today’s market velocity propelled…
2018 ended in the high-yield loan and bond markets not with a bang, but with an olufsen. That’s our rendition of “whimper,” borrowed from the Danish audio products company. There are signs 2019 might be off to an upbeat start. But there are contrary signals as well. Volatility caused by rate and trade concerns held…
“US credit markets are grinding to a halt.” So warned the front page of Monday’s Financial Times. Followers of this column will recognize the ensuing list of culprits – money pouring out of loan funds, falling secondary loan prices and resultant choppiness in the primary market, and stalled high-yield bond issuance. Credit markets may be…
Loan prices for the most liquid leveraged names continued to drift lower this week in the wake of continued volatility in the public markets. This despite – or perhaps because of – a Goldilocks-flavored jobs report last Friday. Labor data showed 155k in new jobs for November. Not great, but enough to help ease worries…
Being off-kilter made it world-famous, but that condition is slowly being remedied. Almost since it was built in 1173, the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been sinking and slanting. But recent repair efforts by Italian engineers seem to be paying off. The 190-foot celebrated structure has now eased to the vertical by 1.5 inches. Not…
As we conclude our special series on leveraged loan recoveries, let’s take a look at one structure that is testing the way credit managers think about loan value. Unitranche financings are so much a part of the middle market buyout landscape today, that it’s hard to imagine a time without them. Yet on the evolutionary…
For those of you who sensed last Friday was a special day, but couldn’t put your finger on why, we offer this explanation: On November 16, the annual General Conference on Weights and Measures in Paris voted unanimously to redefine the kilogram. For decades metrologists have been in a tizzy since Le Grand K, the…