Primary quiets following deal rush; Citi mixed; Synchrony tightens; Tyson active

By Cristal Cody and Aleesia Forni

Virginia Beach, Aug. 8 – The high-grade primary market was empty Friday, following Thursday’s onslaught of new issuance.

The session’s roughly $10 billion of supply helped push the week’s total to more than $24 billion.

The figure topped expectations of around $15 billion of new paper.

In other news this week, Lipper reported inflows of $139 million into corporate investment-grade funds for the week ended Aug. 6.

The previous week had seen $952 million of inflows.

Investment-grade bond spreads tightened over the day, while new issues ended the week mixed, market sources said on Friday.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade series 22 index tightened 3 basis points to a spread of 64 bps.

In the secondary market, Citigroup Inc.’s new paper (Baa2/A-/A) traded flat, while the bank’s 4% notes due 2024 brought in late July are nearly 10 bps wider from issuance, a trader said.

WellPoint, Inc.’s senior notes (Baa2/A-/BBB+) priced in Thursday’s session were mixed in secondary trading, according to a trader.

Synchrony Financial’s notes (//BBB-) sold on Wednesday “traded tighter right off the bat” and remained better on Friday afternoon in the secondary market, a trader said.

Tyson Foods Inc.’s senior notes (Baa3/BBB/BBB) brought on Tuesday continued to trade mostly better as the week closed, according to a trader.

“A lot of that new Tyson equity is trading as well,” the trader said.

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