Corporate Bond World Set to Get First Daily Closing Auction

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. is seeking to bring a feature of fast-twitch equity markets to the relatively sedate $9 trillion universe of corporate bonds: the daily closing auction.

The electronic trading company plans to launch a daily “closing print” for corporate bonds — the first standardized end-of-day price in a market long defined by opaque, ad hoc quotes. The goal is to deepen liquidity and lower trading costs, but the worry is there’s a tradeoff if it squeezes dealer profits tied to the very inefficiencies it would eliminate.