Trump inauguration mutes activity in distressed market; Avaya pares earlier gains

By Colin Hanner

Chicago, Jan. 20 – Attention in most of the Western world was directed toward the inauguration of 45th U.S. president Donald Trump on Friday, resulting in activity in the distressed market that paled in comparison to previous sessions in the shortened week, traders said.

“It was a muted session,” a trader said. “Things were very quiet with the presidential inauguration going on.”

Yet, there were a few names that rose above the headline of a Trump presidency to trade on happenings earlier in the week.

One of telecommunications company Avaya, Inc.’s distressed securities traded a “slug of times” but pared gains from Thursday when the company announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a trader said.

St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp.’s shareholders were denied the right to form an official equity committee late Thursday and in response, a series of distressed notes ticked higher.

Hospital operator Community Health Systems, Inc. was very active in the morning, a trader said, with several notes trading up.

Retailer Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. continued to struggle on the weakness that is being felt in the traditional retailer space and trekked further down in two sets of distressed notes.

The contagion of Pearson plc’s announcement of weaker earnings and an asset sale of its book publisher on Wednesday seemed to affect Cengage Learning, Inc., but the education content publisher gained back some earlier losses.

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