High-grade primary market empty ahead of holiday; coming week expected to be flush with deals

By Aleesia Forni and Andrea Heisinger

New York, Nov. 21 - Issuers were absent from the high-grade bond market on Wednesday as Thanksgiving vacations began.

There was $3.85 billion of new corporate bonds sold in the three days leading up to Thanksgiving, in addition to some offerings from sovereigns. This was less than the $5 billion to $10 billion range expected.

Issuance should ramp up in the week following Thanksgiving, sources said on Wednesday.

"I think we'll have a huge week ahead," a market source said in late morning of the New York session. "There are a lot of year-end constraints on [buyside and sellside]."

A syndicate source said she was hearing of $20 billion to $25 billion of new supply in the pipeline for the coming week.

There are some factors that could change that, depending on the situation in Europe and the Middle East, as well as fiscal cliff talks in Congress.

"There are some things that could change [issuance], but I think a lot of people will go ahead with it anyway," the syndicate source said. "There aren't that many days left."

Meanwhile, the Markit CDX Series 18 North American Investment Grade index was 1 basis point tighter at a spread of 101 bps on Wednesday.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.