Morning Commentary: Workday convertibles active as maturity nears; equities open higher

By Abigail W. Adams

Portland, Me., Sept. 2 – Trading volumes remained muted in the convertibles secondary space on the Friday before Labor Day with few trades on the tape as equities rallied on the heels of the U.S. non-farm payroll report.

While the report still highlighted strength in the labor market with job growth greater than anticipated, the unemployment rate ticked higher and wage growth slowed, causing the market to dial back its expectations for the size of the Federal Reserve’s September rate hike.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 317 points, or 1%, the S&P 500 index was up 1.21%, the Nasdaq Composite index was up 1.24% and the Russell 2000 index was up 1.05% shortly before 11 a.m. ET.

There was $30 million in reported volume about one hour into the session with few names seeing concentrated trading activity.

Workday Inc.’s 0.25% convertible notes due Oct. 22, 2022 were active with the soon-to-mature notes in their averaging period.

The 0.25% notes gained about 0.75 point outright with stock up more than 1.5%.

They were trading at 109.875 early in the session.

The notes were changing hands around parity.

“Nothing too exciting there,” a source said.

With $3 million in reported volume, the issue was among the most actively traded early in the session.

Workday’s shares were seen at $163.28, a decrease of 1.39%, shortly before 11 a.m. ET.

© 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.