Meet the New Currency Arbitrageurs: Corporate Treasurers

Strange things have been happening in markets, that much we know.

In the credit world, derivatives linked to the corporate debt sold by companies have been trading at a tighter level than the cash bonds themselves. In the vast and shadowy repo market, the rates charged for interest rate swaps have plunged below equivalent U.S. Treasury yields. Meanwhile, in FX markets, the cost to convert local currency payments from the euro area, the U.K. and Japan into dollars has jumped, sending the so-called "cross-currency" basis deeper into negative territory in the process.