Comcast, Enterprise Products, Canadian Railway, ERP, Crane price; credit spreads ease

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Feb. 1 – Investment-grade issuers tapped the primary market on Thursday in one of the busiest sessions seen since mid-January.

Comcast Corp. sold $3.2 billion of fixed-rate notes (A3/A-/A-) in three parts, along with an $800 million offering of Taipei Exchange-listed notes.

Enterprise Products Operating LLC brought a $2.7 billion three-tranche offering of notes to the primary market on Thursday.

Canadian National Railway Co. came with a $900 million two-part sale of fixed-rate notes.

ERP Operating LP sold $500 million of 10-year notes.

Deal action in the high-grade bond market has picked up over the last few sessions with market sources expecting about $20 billion of total supply for the week.

Issuance had waned following strong bank and financial supply in mid-January and with many companies still in earnings reporting blackout periods.

Nearly half of U.S. high-grade issuers have now released their fourth quarter earnings results, according to a BofA Merrill Lynch analyst note released on Thursday.

Deal volume in February is pegged at $80 billion to $90 billion, according to the note.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 29 index softened nearly 1 basis point to a spread of of 48 bps.

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