Investment grade US corporate bonds rallied this week, despite a flurry of multi billion dollar deals and a looming AT&T offering of possibly as much as $8bn to $10bn in the next few weeks. Lucent Technologies launched a rare $1.36bn 30 year global bond, becoming only the third US corporate to go to the global markets with such a long dated deal. Heller Financial issued $600m of five year bonds (JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch), increased from $500m, Freddie Mac priced a $3bn monthly reference note of 10 year bonds at 62.5bp over Treasuries and in the high yield market Charter Communications was due to launch a $3bn three tranche offering today (Friday).
March 12, 1999