The Senate cleared these cond major bill responding to the coronavirus pandemic, with lawmakers rushing to follow up with an additional economic rescue package that President Donald Trump"s administration estimates will cost $1.3 trillion. (Bloomberg) The European Central Bank launched an extra emergency bond-buying program worth 750 billion euros ($820billion) in the latest attempt to calm markets and protect a euro-area economy struggling to cope with the coronavirus epidemic. (Bloomberg) The swift hit to the U.S. economy from efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus has created a crunch in credit markets. Companies have rushed to raise cash by drawing down credit lines and other borrowings. The ripple effect has been a whammy to credit markets, sending many spreads wider across the markets and even stalling out the commercial paper market, where the highest rated companies go for cash. The Fed on Tuesday said it would provide help to companies getting short-term funding. (CNBC) Fitch has revised the sector and Rating Outlook for its portfolio of U.S. banks to negative from stable. The revision on 18 March 2020 is due to concerns over the impact of the coronavirus, which continues to spread globally. Over the near term, Fitch expects that U.S. banks will face profitability challenges as the Fed has brought its targeted Fed Funds rate down between 0.00% and 0.25%. (Fitch) Source: Danareksa Sekuritas Debt Research Photo by Alex Vasey on Unsplash