Bond Market News

US primary market issuances rose last week to $17.7bn after the week prior to it saw a mere $1.3bn in a shortened week due to Thanksgiving holidays. The deal volumes were solely led by IG issuances stood with Amazon raising $8.5bn via a five-trancher followed by PacificCorp raising $1.25bn. In North America, there were a total of 21 upgrades and 35 downgrades across the three major rating agencies last week. As per Lipper data, US IG funds saw $6.9bn in outflows in the week ended November 30, a fifteenth straight week of outflows while HY funds saw $1.7bn in outflows, breaking a run of five straight weeks of inflows. LatAm saw $1.6bn vs. $357mn in new deals with Colombia raising the entire amount. In South America, there were no upgrades and 2 downgrades across the major rating agencies. EU Corporate G3 issuance stood at $19.7bn vs. $32.1bn a week prior with SocGen raising €1.5bn followed by EDF and Commerzbank raising €1bn each. Across the European region, there were 16 upgrades and 37 downgrades. The GCC G3 primary bond market saw $355mn vs. $750mn in deals in the prior week led with HSBC Bank Middle East raising $350mn. Across the Middle East/Africa region, there were 6 upgrades and 9 downgrades each across the three major rating agencies. APAC ex-Japan G3 issuances were at $5.8bn vs. $2.3bn in the week prior led by ANZ Bank’s $2.5bn dual-trancher, Commonwealth Bank’s $1.5bn and Deyang Development’s $700mn two-trancher. In the APAC region, there were 6 upgrades and 11 downgrades combined across the three rating agencies last week.