Morning Commentary: Convertibles secondary market sees light trade; Booking notes active

By Rebecca Melvin

Concord, N.H., Aug. 23 – The convertibles market was trading mildly early Monday as equities continued to rebound from a drop last Thursday.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 237 points, or 0.65%, the S&P 500 index was up 0.82%, the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.20% and the Russell 2000 index was up 1.23% shortly before 11 a.m. ET.

In convertibles trading, there was about $92 million in reported volume shortly after 11 a.m. ET.

“[It’s] a little light,” an East Coast-based market source said.

The main name in trade was one that has been active for the last couple of days, the source said.

Booking Holdings Inc.’s convertible notes continued to dominate trade as the travel technology company’s 0.9% tranche approaches maturity.

Booking Holdings’ 0.9% convertible notes due Sept. 15, 2021 traded up “pretty big,” at about 103 bid, 103.5 offered, which was 1.75 points to 2 points higher on the day.

There was about $15 million of volume having changed hands in that issue, making it the top volume name of the day so far.

Booking’s stock bumped up in the early going and was last higher by 1.7%.

Booking’s stock was $2,109.85 a share, an increase of $35.11, shortly before 11 a.m. ET.

The Booking 0.75% convertible notes due 2025 were not trading.

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