April issuance seen modest; coming week's volume uncertain; GE Capital notes weaker

By Aleesia Forni and Andrea Heisinger

New York, March 28 - Bond issuance took a vacation on Thursday ahead of the long Easter holiday weekend.

"We're not expecting anything today," a market source said at midday. "Most people started their vacations early."

Volume for April is expected to be between $40 billion to $45 billion, the source said.

The source added that this "probably will not be more [volume] than March."

Another source said there would be "about $50 billion" of supply for the coming month. The drop is due to the upcoming earnings blackout and uncertainty about the euro zone.

The next week's volume is expected to be modest due to an Easter Monday holiday in Europe and some in Asia. There is also some continued heartburn over the situation in Cyprus after a bailout plan was announced.

"Bank stocks are not performing well in general," a syndicate source said on Thursday.

There is between $10 billion and $15 billion possibly pricing in the coming week, although perhaps not until after Monday.

"We're viewing it as a shortened week," the syndicate source said. "We could see a couple of things [Monday] that don't have a lot of European or international demand, like utilities."

The investment-grade secondary market was also muted on Thursday, traders noted.

The Markit CDX Series 20 North American Investment Grade index tightened 2 basis points to a spread of 90 bps on Thursday.

One trader quoted General Electric Capital Corp.'s notes, which priced on Monday, trading 6 basis points wider compared to levels seen earlier in the session.

GE Capital notes weaker

The $1 billion tranche of 1.625% five-year notes from General Electric Capital was quoted at 99 bps bid, 95 bps offered on Thursday.

Another trader had seen the notes at 93 bps bid earlier in the session.

The notes sold with a spread of 90 bps over Treasuries.

Monday's sale also included $400 million of five-year floating-rate notes priced at par to yield Libor plus 71 basis points.

The funding arm of General Electric Co. is based in Norwalk, Conn.

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