High-grade primary packed; Visa, Fox, energy issuers, others price; March volume a record

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., March 31 – High-grade issuers continued to flood the primary market on Tuesday and priced about $13 billion of bonds over the session.

The deals bring week to date volume to about $50 billion after Monday’s record daily supply high.

Issuers on Tuesday brought both corporate and sovereign, supranational and agency supply.

During the session, Visa Inc., Fox Corp., Crown Castle International Corp., General Mills, Inc., Ameriprise Financial, Inc. and Athene Global Funding sold notes.

A few utilities also priced bonds.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co., Dominion Energy, Inc., Edison International, DTE Electric Co., Ameren Illinois Co. and Idaho Power Co. tapped the primary market.

Swedish Export Credit Corp. brought new SSA supply.

About $30 billion to as much as $60 billion of deal volume was expected this week, according to market sources.

Issuers priced more than $37 billion of bonds on Monday, led by a $20 billion six-part deal from Oracle Corp.

March volume blew away syndicate forecasts that were in the $100 billion to $125 billion range. The month saw over $258 billion of high-grade supply, the highest monthly volume on record, sources said.

April volume is pegged at about $100 billion.

High-grade sources report that deal floodgates have opened with the Federal Reserve now buying corporate bonds in response to the coronavirus.

Lighter pricing action is anticipated over the back half of the week and in April as companies enter earnings reporting-related blackout periods.

Market tone weakened over the day.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 33 index softened more than 6 basis points to a spread of 114.13 bps on Tuesday.

Stock indexes were all improved at the start of the session but closed lower. The Nasdaq rose 1.12% in early trading and closed off 0.95%. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 1.84%.

The iShares iBoxx Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF was improved 0.49% at the start of the day after closing up 1.22% on Monday. The ETF finished Tuesday down 0.33%.

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