Fidelis prices; Ford, Swedish Export on tap; high-grade inflows dip; credit spreads widen

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., June 11 – Investment-grade supply thinned on Thursday with some issuers staying on the sidelines as stocks plunged and credit spreads widened amid a weak market tone.

Fidelis Insurance Holdings Ltd. (/BBB/) priced a $300 million Rule 144A offering of 10-year senior notes.

The Federal Home Loan Bank System sold $1 billion of two-year Global notes early in the session after bringing a $500 million reopening of its 0.5% Global notes due April 14, 2025 to the market on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Ford Foundation announced on Thursday that it plans to price $1 billion of taxable social bonds (Aaa/AAA/), making it the first non-profit foundation to offer social bonds in the U.S. taxable corporate bond market.

Coming up on Friday, Swedish Export Credit Corp. plans to price a $500 million reopening of its 1.75% global notes due Dec. 12, 2023 (Aa1/AA+/).

Investment-grade issuers have priced more than $25 billion of bonds week to date.

About $30 billion to $40 billion of issuance was expected for the week.

Nearly a dozen high-grade issuers have pulled back on tapping the primary market over the past two sessions, a source said.

Net investment-grade corporate fund inflows remained high for the past week ended Wednesday at $9.48 billion but down slightly from $9.91 billion of inflows in the prior week, according to Refinitive Lipper US Fund Flows.

Inflows in the two weeks prior totaled $7.5 billion and $5.33 million.

Credit spreads moved out nearly 9 basis points on Thursday. The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 33 index ended the session at an 81.19 bps spread compared to a spread of 72.49 bps on Wednesday.

Stocks were down across the board. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 6.9%, or 1,861.82 points.

The S&P 500 closed off 5.89%, while the Nasdaq fell 5.27%.

New issues priced this week have been mixed in the secondary market, a source said.

Toronto-Dominion Bank’s $2.75 billion of senior medium-term notes (Aa3/A/) sold in two tranches on Wednesday improved about 4 bps to 5 bps.

The bank’s $1.75 billion of 1.75% notes due June 12, 2023 firmed about 4 bps in secondary trading.

The notes were priced at a spread of 58 bps over Treasuries, on the tight side of guidance in the 60 bps area and better than initial talk in the Treasuries plus 80 bps area.

TD Bank’s $1 billion tranche of 1.15% notes due June 12, 2025 tightened about 5 bps from issuance.

The notes priced with a Treasuries plus 83 bps spread, on the tight side of guidance in the 85 bps area and improved from initial talk in the 100 bps area.

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