Ausgrid holds roadshow; thin supply forecast; Dollar Tree, General Mills better than issue

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., April 6 – The investment-grade bond market stayed fairly quiet on Friday with light supply expected in the week ahead.

“We’re calling for $12 [billion] to $17 billion next week,” one syndicate source said.

More than $24 billion of investment-grade bonds were priced during the past week, coming in line with syndicate forecasts of about $20 billion to $25 billion of volume.

Several issuers are underway with roadshow plans.

Ausgrid Finance Pty Ltd. kicked off a roadshow on Friday for a benchmark-sized note offering of five-year and/or 10-year senior notes.

Coming up on Monday, Syngenta AG will start a roadshow for a benchmark-sized multi-tranche senior note offering.

Weaker March jobs data dominated market attention at the start of the day and stocks ended weaker on growing China trade war fears. The U.S. Department of Labor reported 103,000 jobs were added during the month, less than the 185,000 forecasted. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1% but above the 4% level market analysts had expected.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 30 index eased about 2 basis points over the day to end at a spread of 65 bps.

Looking at the secondary market, new bonds priced during the week were mostly stronger.

Dollar Tree Inc.’s senior notes (Baa3/BBB-/) priced on Thursday tightened, with the seven-year notes trading about 10 bps better on Friday.

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