Community Health up marginally as health bill stalls; Concordia, Avaya dip; iHeart quiet

By Colin Hanner

Chicago, March 23 – Activity in the distressed market was extremely quiet due to the fate of a proposed health care bill in Washington, a trader said, a feeling shared throughout other markets.

“The market in general was quiet, because everyone was waiting to see what was going to happen to the health care bill, which isn’t happening,” a trader said, adding that new issues from BWAY Holding Co. and continued trading from Frontier Communications Corp. stole the thunder of any moves the distressed arena.

That proved to be a sigh of relief for hospital groups, which are threatened under the new bill, though movement was not illustrious in the distressed market for Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, Inc., which barely pivoted on the day.

In a similar sphere, pharmaceutical company Concordia International Corp. was down across several issues. Fellow pharmaceutical giant Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. remained nearly unchanged. Elsewhere, Santa Clara, Calif.-based telecommunications company Avaya Inc. saw a several-point downturn in one of its issues, though there was no imminent or current news to explain the fall.

Speculation persisted in the oil sector on continuing worries that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ cuts are not doing as much as intended to a burgeoning worldwide glut. California Resources Corp. was unchanged on the day.

iHeartCommunications, Inc. was quieter than usual, a trader said, with one issue remaining virtually unchanged on the day.

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