Markit Recap – 2/27/2017

It is no secret that a divide - maybe a chasm - has opened up between the US and Europe. Donald Trump's mercantilist views put his presidency at loggerheads with the globalist EU, though a post-Brexit UK may yet turn out to be an ideological bedfellow.

But this week we saw signs that a division is manifesting itself in the credit markets. The Markit CDX.NA.IG has rallied steadily in recent months - since Trump's election victory on November 8 2016, the index has tightened from 75bps to 60bps. Over the same period the Markit iTraxx Europe was just 2bps tighter at 71bps. The 11bps basis between the two on-the-run indices is the largest for more than three years...