WEEKLY UPDATE
Although off the pace of last week, the primary market was active yet again with $9.7 billion of investment-grade issuance and $850 million of high-yield deals. This brings credit market issuance to $36 billion so far in 2003, fulfilling expectations of a New Year issuance wave. The finance sector provided notable volume in the latest week and Verizon kicked off the annual issuing program for the telecom sector with $1 billion of 5-years. A sizeable amount of volume is arising from the supra/sovereign sector with a $3 billion deal from KFW boosting triple-A volume this week. Hence the weighted average rating has trended up sharply since the beginning of the year and is currently close to its rolling 12-month high.
Analysis by CreditSights, Inc., an independent online credit research platform. Call (212) 340-3888 or visit www.CreditSights.com for more information.