High-grade supply quiet after strong week; Comcast flat; Berkshire eases; Toyota improves

By Cristal Cody

Eureka Springs, Ark., Jan. 6 – Investment-grade issuers took a break on Friday after pricing more than $53 billion of corporate bonds in three sessions over the week in a strong start to 2017.

About $25 billion to $35 billion of high-grade corporate supply is forecast for the week ahead, a source said.

New bonds were mixed in secondary trading on Friday.

Comcast Corp.’s $2.5 billion of senior notes (A3/A-/A-) priced in two tranches on Thursday traded mostly unchanged from issuance.

Berkshire Hathaway Finance Corp.’s $1.3 billion of floating-rate senior notes (Aa2/AA/) priced in two parts on Thursday softened about 1 basis point in the secondary market.

Toyota Motor Credit Corp.’s 3.2% senior notes due 2027 priced on Wednesday improved about 1 bp by mid-afternoon secondary trading.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade index closed mostly flat at a spread of 64 bps.

Comcast steady

Comcast’s 3% notes due 2024 traded on Friday at 85 bps bid, 83 bps offered, a source said.

The company sold $1.25 billion of the notes on Thursday at a spread of 85 bps over Treasuries.

Comcast’s 3.3% notes due 2027 were quoted at 95 bps bid, 93.5 bps offered in the secondary market.

The notes priced on Thursday in a $1.25 billion tranche at a spread of Treasuries plus 95 bps.

Comcast is a media and technology company based in Philadelphia.

Berkshire Hathaway eases

Berkshire Hathaway Finance’s floating-rate notes due 2020 softened to 33 bps bid, 30 bps offered in the secondary market, a source said on Friday.

The company priced $350 million of the three-year floating-rate notes on Thursday at par to yield Libor plus 32 bps.

Berkshire-Hathaway Finance is an Omaha, Neb.-based financing arm of Berkshire-Hathaway.

Toyota Credit better

Toyota Motor Credit’s 3.2% senior notes due 2027 were quoted on Friday afternoon at 78 bps bid, 75 bps offered in secondary trading, a market source said.

The notes were seen early in the day at 76 bps offered in secondary trading.

Toyota Motor Credit sold $750 million of the 10-year notes (Aa3/AA-/) at 80 bps over Treasuries on Wednesday as part of a $3.5 billion five-tranche deal.

The Torrance, Calif.-based company is the funding arm of auto manufacturer Toyota.

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