Quiet week for primary closes with no new deals; Monsanto dominates secondary

By Cristal Cody and Aleesia Forni

Virginia Beach, June 27 – The investment-grade primary was empty of new issuance on Friday, capping off a slower week for the market.

This week’s market saw roughly $14.1 billion of new high-grade paper price, falling short of expectations of around $15 billion to $20 billion.

This week’s total pushes the total issuance so far for June to more than $90 billion.

Lipper reported inflows of $1.502 billion into corporate investment-grade funds for the week ended June 25, down from last week’s inflows of $1.965 billion.

This brings the year-to-date total inflows to roughly $42 billion.

Monsanto Co.’s bonds dominated secondary trading on Friday, a trader said.

Monsanto priced a $4.5 billion seven-part offering of senior notes (A3/BBB+/A-) on Thursday afternoon.

The company’s 30-year bond was the “highest volume bond on Trace today,” a trader said on Friday.

Monsanto’s 10-year note was the third-highest volume bond during the session, while the 20-year bond was the fourth highest, and the 50-year bond was the fifth highest, according to the trader.

In other trading, Yamana Gold Inc.’s 4.95% senior notes due 2024 were offered slightly wider but remain better than issuance, according to a trader.

Investment-grade bond spreads ended mostly softer on the day, sources said.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade series 22 index eased 1 basis point to a spread of 58 bps.

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