Community Health slows after tumultuous Thursday; other healthcare mixed following suit

By Colin Hanner

Chicago, Oct. 28 – Movement in distressed debt mirrored the mostly quiet equity market on Friday, as the U.S. gross domestic product report slightly beat expectations and several companies released their quarterly earnings.

Though news of another probe into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails shocked equity markets in the late afternoon, traders said there wasn’t much movement occurring in distressed debt.

A high yield downward mover that is “well into distressed,” as one trader put it, is Community Health Systems Inc., which is coming off a tumultuous third-quarter earnings report. After a bleak Thursday, during which several of its notes declined in the high single-digits, slowed down during Friday’s session.

The 6 7/8% notes due 2022 were unchanged at 76¾ on “a ton of trades,” but “their hemorrhaging stopped,” one trader said. The notes were down 8½ points during Thursday’s session.

Community Health-spinoff, Quorum Health Group, followed suit, as its 11 5/8% notes due 2023 were unchanged at 72½.

Pharmaceutical developer and marketer Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. saw a shock in its equity stock on Friday, when it registered a sub-30 score on the Relative Strength Index, a metric that indicates a stock is being oversold.

Its 6 1/8% notes due 2025 saw some downward movement, moving down 3 points to 79, according to one trader, and its 5 7/8% notes due 2023 were down 2 7/8 to 79 1/8, a market source said.

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