"No panic signals" from Freddie debt auctions
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freddie Mac's (FRE.N) bill sales drew fewer bids than similar issues a week ago, but these bids as well, as demand for a note deal on Tuesday, showed the company maintains debt market access, analysts said.
"Freddie Mac saw demand ebb week-to-week in its bill auctions, but there were no panic signals in the results," according to IDEAglobal.
Concerns that a lack of fresh equity capital could lead Freddie Mac and its larger mortgage funding rival Fannie Mae to suspend dividend payments spurred Fitch Ratings on Tuesday to cut its ratings on the companies' preferred shares.
Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's late last month took similar actions.
On the debt side, where senior securities maintain top-notch credit ratings, Freddie Mac sold $1 billion each of 3-month and 6-month bills early Tuesday.
Interest rates were mixed from similar auctions a week ago, but demand was weaker based on bid-to-cover ratios that measure the amount of bids compared with the amount offered. Still, demand did not fall off sharply from recent sales.
The bid-to-cover on the shorter maturity declined to 3.73 from 3.95 last week. Demand for the six-month bills was lower based on a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.67 compared with 3.42.
The ratio for the three-month issue was "still above average and decent even for smaller three-month auctions," and for the six-month issue was little changed from a 2.80 average over the past three months, Nancy Vanden Houten, analyst at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates, wrote in an auction review called "Move Along, Not Much to See Here."
Among more extended maturities, Freddie Mac also sold $1 billion of five-year notes on Tuesday in a reopening of an existing issue that is now $4 billion in size.
The offering was auctioned via the Internet at a 3.975 percent rate, or about 95.6 basis points more than Treasuries, and drew 3.545 bids for every note offered.
Freddie Mac tests demand for its shorter-dated debt again on Wednesday when it sells $3 billion of new two-year notes through underwriters led by JPMorgan, Lehman and UBS.
(Reporting by Lynn Adler)
