Midday Commentary: Hologic active again; Fluidigm looks stronger; BioMarin shares down

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, May 2 - Convertibles were trading quietly on Friday, maintaining a trend that has been in place all week, as equities traded mixed following the U.S. April jobs report that showed more jobs than estimated were added last month.

Hologic Inc.'s two convertible bond issues remained atop the Trace volume tape, extending outright gains notched Thursday after the Bedford, Mass.-based medical diagnostics company raised full-year guidance.

Hologic's 2% convertibles due 2042 traded up to 107.25, which was up from 105.487 late Thursday, according to Trace data. The Hologic 2% convertibles due 2037 changed hands at 118.475, which was up from 117 Thursday. Hologic shares were up about 1%.

Fluidigm Corp.'s 2.75% convertibles due 2034, which priced in February, were in trade early and were seen stronger, a New York-based trader said. The bonds were quoted at 107.43 bid, 107.55 offered versus an underlying share price of $37.60. That level on a 65% to 70% delta looked to be up from previous trades, the trader said. Shares of the South San Francisco-based genomics and DNA research company were up fractionally.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.'s 0.75% convertibles due 2018, or the A tranche, and the 1.5% convertibles due 2020, or the B tranche, traded early Friday at 101.88 and 102.255, respectively. Both were down more than 2.5 points amid a 6% drop in the underlying shares of the Novato, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical company following its earnings report.

BioMarin left its full-year guidance unchanged in its first-quarter earnings report released late Thursday.

On the economic data front, non-farm payrolls added 288,000 jobs in April, which was much better than expected, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.3%., the Labor Department said Friday.

Analysts had expected 218,000 jobs and 6.6% unemployment.

A lower labor participation rate of 62.8%, which is viewed as negative for the economy, contributed to the lower unemployment rate.

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