Deal volume thins; FedEx, Bank of America firm; Comcast mixed; high-grade inflows ‘robust’

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Feb. 2 – Investment-grade issuance stayed mostly quiet on Friday with one deal brought to market early in the session.

Municipality Finance plc (Aa1/AA+/) priced $100 million of floating-rate notes due 2021.

Looking ahead, about $25 billion of corporate deal volume is expected by market sources for the upcoming week.

In the secondary market on Friday, new issues priced over the week mostly tightened.

Bank and financial paper also traded modestly better on Friday, a source said.

FedEx Corp.’s notes (Baa2/BBB/) priced in a $1.5 billion two-part deal on Monday improved 3 basis points to 4 bps.

Bank of America Corp.’s $1.5 billion of floating-rate notes due Feb. 5, 2026 brought to market on Wednesday tightened 3 bps in secondary trading.

Comcast Corp.’s $3.2 billion of notes (A3/A-/A-) priced in three parts on Thursday were mixed.

Credit spreads softened on Friday. The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 29 index eased 2 bps to a spread of 50 bps.

Elsewhere, inflows to U.S.-domiciled equity fund and ETFs totaled $16.94 billion for the week ended Wednesday, compared to the $14.9 billion inflow the prior week and the $15.1 billion average over the past three weeks, Yuri Seliger, an analyst with BofA Merrill Lynch, said in a note released on Friday.

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