FedEx, John Deere Capital tap high-grade market; Duke Energy flat; JPMorgan paper softens

By Cristal Cody

Eureka Springs, Ark., Jan. 3 – High-grade bond issues opened the 2017 market quickly with new deals priced and announced over the first new session of the year on Tuesday.

FedEx Corp. came with a $1.2 billion two-tranche offering of notes.

John Deere Capital Corp. raised $1 billion in a three-part sale of senior medium-term notes, including a floating-rate tranche.

Also, Duke Energy Florida, LLC, Santander UK Group Holdings plc and Westpac Banking Corp. were expected to price new bonds.

Canadian investment-grade bond issuers stayed to the sidelines as January kicked off.

“Even the food court was quiet,” a syndicate source said. “It’s never been a terribly busy month in Canada. Our banks came out of blackout at the end of November so a lot of banks got their fiscal quarter funding done. The non-financial issuers, a lot of them, don’t go out of blackout till February.”

About C$5 billion to C$8 billion of Canadian high-grade supply is expected for the month, the source said.

U.S. issuance is expected by syndicate sources to remain strong in January with as much as $160 billion of volume forecasted.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade index closed the session about 2 basis points tighter at a spread of 66 bps.

Duke Energy Corp.’s 2.65% senior notes due 2026 traded flat on the day.

In other secondary trading, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s 2.972% notes due Jan. 15, 2023 ended weaker than seen earlier.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.