Despite the potential for volatility ahead of the Federal Reserve’s September meeting on interest rates, CMBS spreads were stable last week, according to research published Friday by J.P. Morgan.
At the top of the capital structure, spreads on benchmark legacy A4s tightened by 3 basis points to swaps plus 163 basis points, while 10-year, new issue triple-A spreads were unchanged, at swaps plus 100 basis points.
In fact, CMBS performance over the past six weeks has been considerably more subdued than the same period before the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, J.P. Morgan analysts said in the report.
Spreads on new issues have been locked in a relatively tight range amid a lack of new deals in the market. Ten-year new issue triple-AAA spreads have moved just 4 basis points around their current level of swaps plus 100 basis points since mid-August.
Subordinate bonds are also little changed over this time period. Last week, benchmark double-A and single-A spreads tightened 5 basis points and 10 basis points, respectively, to swaps plus 180 basis points and swaps plus 255 basis points, while triple-B-minus spreads ended the week 5 basis point wider at swaps plus 420 basis points.
The limited spread recovery after the June sell-off, combined with a steady rise in rates, has kept yields across the new issue capital structure near their highest levels of the year, J.P. Morgan said.
