It's strange. I always thought that unemployment was a bad thing. But for cash-strapped Asian equity and debt issuers, last Friday's US unemployment figures were a real shot in the arm. The May figures showed that the jobless figure rose to 4.1% and that the number of non-government jobs fell for the first time in four years.
The markets have reacted with surprising alacrity. And now bankers and their issuing clients really believe that their deals can get done. This is a huge relief after nearly a month when the markets were closed to all but the best issuers or the cheapest deals.
So far, it has been a ...
