Primary pauses amidst FOMC minutes release; Bank of America paper, Apple tightens

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, March 18 – TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. priced an offering of bonds on Wednesday, as other potential issuers kept to the sidelines amidst the release of the Federal Open Market Committee statement.

TransCanada came to market with a $750 million offering of 4.6% senior notes due 2045.

Away from TransCanada’s deal, the primary market was unsurprisingly empty of new issuance as the market focused on the release of the Federal Reserve’s statement following the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting.

Sources expect another bout of supply before the week’s close following the statement, though the total is unlikely to hit earlier predictions of $25 billion to $30 billion.

So far this week, the investment-grade bond market has hosted $11.9 billion of new issuance, bringing March’s total supply so far to a staggering $124 billion.

High-grade bonds were mixed on the day while credit spreads improved following the Fed’s statement, sources said.

Bank of America Corp.’s 4% notes due 2025 tightened 5 basis points in the secondary market.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s 3.5% senior notes due 2025 traded flat.

Apple Inc.’s 2.5% notes due 2025 firmed 3 bps.

Microsoft Corp.’s 2.7% notes due 2025 widened 4 bps during the session.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade series 23 index firmed 1 bp to a spread of 64 bps.

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