Service Corp. International add-on, upsized MSCI drive by to open week; quiet market seen

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Aug. 10 – The high-yield primary opened the new week on Monday with a pair of opportunistically timed and quickly marketed pricings that totaled $1.1 billion.

The big deal of the day came from financial research services provider MSCI Inc., which did an upsized $800 million of new 10-year notes.

Also during the session, there was a $300 million add-on deal from Service Corp. International, the giant death-care company that investment guru Peter Lynch once waggishly dubbed “McBurial,” likening it to the ubiquitous McDonald’s.

Both of those offerings priced fairly late in the day, and traders reported no immediate aftermarket activity.

They also said that in a generally quiet overall session, there wasn’t too much going on, volume-wise, in issues that had priced last week such as First Data Corp., Vista Outdoor, Inc. and Party City Holdings, Inc.

Away from the new-issue front, a solid rise in crude oil prices on increased Chinese demand did not prove to be of much help to some energy credits, including California Resources Corp. and Linn Energy LLC, but did prove positive for others, such as maritime driller Transocean Ltd., which was also helped by an upgrade in its equity.

Statistical measures of junk market performance turned mixed on Monday after having been lower across the board on both Thursday and Friday; they been mixed for two straight sessions before that.

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