Primary quiet; pace to slow upcoming week; Canadian Pacific Railway firms; AT&T, Verizon soft

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, Feb. 13 – Issuers stayed on the sidelines on Friday, with no new investment-grade bond deals pricing ahead of the extended holiday weekend.

Roughly $29 billion of new issuance hit the investment-grade primary bond market this week, topping what predictions for a $25 billion week.

Many of the deals priced this week, including Microsoft Corp.’s jumbo $10.75 billion deal and Rockwell Automation Inc.’s $600 million offering, were met with overwhelming demand.

Even with the strong reception recent deals have seen from investors, activity is likely to slow in the week ahead.

Sources are expecting around $20 billion of high-grade paper to price during the Presidents’ Day holiday-shortened week.

Meanwhile, cash continued to flow into investment-grade bond funds.

Lipper reported inflows of $2.335 billion into corporate high-grade bond funds for the week ended Feb. 11.

The total was down from last week’s inflows of $4.376 billion, bringing the year-to-date total inflows to $12.846 billion.

Investment-grade bonds were mixed over the session on Friday, sources said.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade index ended 1 basis point tighter at a spread of 64 bps.

Canadian Pacific Railway Co.’s 2.9% senior notes due 2025 tightened 4 bps during the session.

AT&T Inc.’s 4.8% bonds due 2044 traded about 3 bps weaker.

Verizon Communications Inc.’s 3.5% notes due 2024 widened 5 bps over the day.

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