Banks dominate again
Banks dominated for the second consecutive day after several institutions reported earnings.
Credit Agricole was first up, though the French firm probably didn't intend to be. The bank inadvertently posted its results online hours ahead of schedule, though the fact that they were better than expected may have reduced any embarrassment. Both earnings and revenues beat consensus estimates, and the strong performance was broad-based.
Credit Agricole's capital position isn't as robust as some of its rivals, though the differences between the listed entity and the whole group muddy the picture. CDS investors welcomed the numbers, and it was the top performing name in the Markit iTraxx Europe, tightening 14bps to 152bps.
Standard Chartered's results weren't as impressive, with the Asia-focused bank taking a $1bn hit from its struggling Korean business. This was expected, and the fact that there weren't any other nasty surprises limited the damage.
The bank's CDS were steady around 130bps, and are now about 70bps tighter than in late June, when China's interbank market was in turmoil and the company was the subject of short-selling speculation.
Italian bank Unicredit trades considerably wider than either Credit Agricole or Standard Chartered, and today's results were never going to change that relationship. The bank's CDS were unchanged at 293bps after it posted earnings in line with expectations. Trading revenues were relatively strong and the balance sheet showed signs of improvement.