Primary quiet as junk closes year’s first week, pick up expected; oil names ease

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Jan. 5 – The high-yield market closed out the first trading week of the new year on Friday with exactly nothing to show for it in the way of new dollar-denominated and fully junk-rated issues having priced, or even announced.

However, primary market participants said that they expected that would change soon, with several deals slated to go into the pipeline in the coming week.

In the secondary market, meantime, traders saw some of the energy names, such as exploration and production operators California Resources Corp., EP Energy Corp., MEG Energy Corp. and driller Ensco plc, come off the highs they had notched on Thursday after opening the year with three consecutive sessions of sizable gains fueled by surging crude oil prices.

Crude prices themselves were lower on Friday after several upside sessions.

Away from the oil sphere, another energy-related entity – coal producer Murray Energy Corp. – gained solidly in active trading for a second consecutive session.

Apart from energy, drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s paper was mostly higher.

In telecommunications, several series of wireless provider Sprint Corp.’s bonds were better – but wireline company Frontier Communications Corp. stayed lower.

Statistical market performance measures were higher across the board for a fifth consecutive session on Friday.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.