Loan-only credit default swaps tightened the first week of the New Year, mainly due to technical trading, traders said. Among the tighteners were those forSmurfit-Stone Container Corp., Mosaic Corp. andCelanese Corp. The price of protection on Smurfit loans was about five basis points tighter, at 95-100bps; Mosaic LCDS were about three basis points tighter around 68-73 bps; and those referencing Celanese were about two basis points tighter at 78-83 bps.
The corresponding cash loans to those LCDS, however, saw some loans trade up and some down. Smurfit's term loan was up slightly to par 7/8-101 from around par 3/4-101. Bucking the trend, Mosaic's term loan was a little softer, trading at par 1/4 from par 3/4 and Celanese was also down slightly to par 1/4-par 1/2 from par 3/4-3/8.
Spokesmen for TPG and Smurfit could not be reached. John Gallagher, Celanese executive v.p. and cfo, did not return a call.
