With the $14 billion of investment grade issuance that was issued this week, the investment grade corporate bond market has hit a $250 billion year-to-date total, which gets us halfway to the CreditSights full-year forecast for high grade supply. The pace reflects an uptick from May's subdued levels though we are still well shy of the thumping volume seen during March, and the average deal size is also rising. At $600 million we are heading into the top end of the range indicating both more depressed high yield primary market conditions of late and the effect of the sizeable programs of the likes of GE Capital. The impact of GECC's issuance activity is also evident in the average rating quality, which has been trending up over the last four weeks. The better bid tone in the market was seen with upsizing reported in higher quality issues in defensive sectors and ready demand found this week for even "troubled" names such as El Paso.
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