Morning Commentary: High-grade supply quiet; Ausgrid to start roadshow; inflows improve

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., April 6 – New issuance stayed quiet during the morning on Friday in the high-grade bond market, while one company plans to begin a roadshow during the session.

Ausgrid Finance Pty Ltd. kicks off its roadshow for a benchmark-sized offering of five-year and/or 10-year senior notes on Friday.

Coming up on Monday, Syngenta AG will start a roadshow for a benchmark-sized multi-tranche senior note offering.

More than $24 billion of investment-grade bonds priced during the week, coming in line with syndicate forecasts of about $20 billion to $25 billion of supply.

Weaker March jobs data dominated investors’ attention at the start of the day. The U.S. Department of Labor reported 103,000 jobs were added during the month, less than the 185,000 forecasted. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1% but above the 4% market analysts had expected.

High-grade inflows rise

	Elsewhere, U.S. fund and ETF flows “improved across the board	during	the week ending	April 4th,” Yunyi Zhang, an analyst with BofA Merrill Lynch, said in a note released on Friday.
	High-grade inflows were $1.71 billion following an outflow of $110 million in the previous week, Zhang said, citing data from EPFR Global and BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.
	The rise was driven by a big increase in ETF inflows to $1.55 billion from $20 million, while fund flows also turned positive to $16 million from a $31 million outflow in the previous week.
	Short-term high-grade funds had an inflow of $91 million after a $34 million outflow in the prior week. Inflows to high grade outside of short term rose to $80 million from $23 million for the week ended Wednesday, according to the note.
	All of the fixed income categories, including global emerging markets and high yield, had the “third strongest weekly inflow year-to-date” at $5.42 billion from $57 million a week earlier, Zhang said.
	In other market activity, secondary trading picked up mid-week. The secondary market saw trading volume of $20.85 billion on Thursday, compared to $20.34 billion on Wednesday, $18.36 billion on Tuesday and $12.18 billion on Monday, according to Trace.

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