U.S. leveraged loan volume totaled $26.9 billion in November, down noticeably from each of the previous two months, as the market went through a period of price discovery, highlighted by the Carlyle Group scrapping the loan and high yield bond deals backing its $8 billion acquisition of Veritas from Symantec.

The November tally was slightly behind roughly $30 billion in issuance seen during November 2014.

Through the first 11 months of the year U.S. leveraged loan issuance totals $414 billion, according to S&P Capital IQ, compared to the $512 billion seen during the same period in 2014.

The busiest month so far in 2015 has been July, which saw a hefty $63 billion in issuance, $38 billion in institutional tranches – which is sold off to non-bank investors – and $25 billion in pro rata issuance – which is sold largely to banks and more traditional investors. – Tim Cross