It was a generally active week for the credit space, with players largely better buyers of bonds. Most of the interest remains in the 10-Year part of the curve. Meanwhile, shorter-dated bonds are very well-held at the moment. Longer-dated bonds with tenors greater than 10 years saw more two-way activity on fast-money trading. Buying interest gained momentum later in the week after the US Federal Reserve held rates, but continued to pencil in rate cuts and stated that they will begin to slow down the pace of their balance sheet reduction. Indonesia and the Indonesian quasi-sovereigns were the underperformers, following the sell-off in Indonesian equities. With this, sovereign spreads ended 3 basis points (bps) wider to 10 bps tighter. Corporate spreads closed around 2 to 10 bps tighter, while credit default swap spreads are 3 to 9 bps wider.

• The US Retail Sales printed lower than expected at 0.2% versus a market estimate of 0.6% month-on-month.
• The US Unemployment Claims printed softer than expected at 223,000 versus a market estimate of 224,000 week-on-week.
• The US Federal Funds Rate was held unchanged at 4.50%.