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Loans located in the 2A market tier accounted for the highest concentration of loans in the pool, at 33.6%.

The disparity comes as fixed-income traders allocate money into safer credits, such as investment-grade or US government debt, amid concerns that borrowers in the lowest-rated rung of corporate debt are even more at risk of defaulting than usual.

The use of the Federal Reserve's emergency lending facilities was largely unchanged this week, indicating to some that the recent liquidity crisis isn't getting any worse.

The economic situation is more like what happened during the mid-'80s thrift crisis than the 2008 downturn, said Chief Economist Doug Duncan.

On the face of it, Powell's Federal Reserve this week pushed ahead with what's been its policy for the past year and so did other major central banks. But in reality everything's changed, after a string of bank collapses sent tremors through world markets.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen repeated her comment from a day earlier that the government's recent actions were "taken to ensure that Americans' deposits are safe." She sought to clarify it with a new line: "Certainly, we would be prepared to take additional actions if warranted."

A federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, setting up a court split ahead of a highly anticipated Supreme Court hearing in October. The Fifth Circuit previously ruled that the agency's funding mechanism violates the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine.

The agency, which oversees government-related investors that set underwriting parameters in the U.S. mortgage market, estimates the process will begin in 2024.

The current deal is a follow-up from a master trust that floated $1.2 billion in notes last September, and will repay the notes sequentially.

Purchases of new single-family homes increased 1.1% to an annualized 640,000 pace after a 633,000 rate in January, government data showed Thursday.