High-grade primary expected to be busy in December; Pfizer, Burlington Northern tighten

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

New York, Nov. 25 – The investment-grade primary was quiet on Wednesday ahead of the market’s closure for the Thanksgiving holiday.

As was expected, no new deals came to market during the session.

The empty trading day left the week’s total supply at $4.14 billion, falling just short of what was predicted to be a $5 billion to $10 billion week.

With little to speak of in the way of primary action on Wednesday, sources were looking ahead to what is predicted to be a deluge of new deals beginning next week.

Between $40 billion and $50 billion of new investment-grade issuance is expected in December, with the bulk of that predicted to hit the market prior to the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting mid-month.

Around $20 billion to $25 billion of that total is expected to price next week.

Investment-grade bonds and credit spreads stayed mostly better over the session as trading desks thinned.

Pfizer Inc.’s 3.4% senior notes due 2024 tightened 6 basis points on Wednesday and traded more than 10 bps better since Monday following the company’s announcement of a $160 billion merger with Dublin-based Allergan plc.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC’s debentures (A3/BBB+) traded about 6 bps to 7 bps tighter over the day.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 25 index firmed 1 bp to end at a spread of 85 bps.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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