Convertibles mostly flat in quiet trade; LinkedIn improves on upgrade; Micron in line

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, July 15 – U.S. convertibles traded mostly flat, or in line with their underlying shares, on Wednesday as equity indices toggled between gains and losses but ultimately ended in the red.

A top volume name in trade was LinkedIn Corp., which was lifted a little bit by an upgrade on the shares to “overweight” from “equal weight” by Barclays.

Micron Technology Inc.’s convertibles were flat on swap, or a bit lower on an outright basis, as shares pulled back following a gap up on Tuesday amid takeover chatter.

The Micron bonds were still seen to have gained on the buyout rumor as have the convertibles of the Milpitas, Calif.-based flash memory chip maker, SanDisk Corp.

“They have richened a little bit after the fact on the Micron news. In theory, it is in play as well,” a New York-based trader said.

In the energy sector, there was some Whiting Petroleum Corp. trading. In the early going shares of the Denver-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company were little changed, and the Whiting 1.25% convertibles traded at 103.75 versus an underlying share price of $30.48, a sellsider said.

But shares fell nearly 5% in afternoon trading, closing down $1.48, or 4.9%, at $29.00. It was not immediately known where the bonds ended the day.

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