Nearly all The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined this week amid fairly light trading activity in the secondary market and ahead of tomorrow’s Thanksgiving Day holiday.
“There’s not been a lot of change, but I think we’ve gotten relatively firmer, though,” said Fred Yosca, manager of underwriting and trading at BNY Mellon Capital Markets. “We’ve seen some decent order flow here, but it’s quieted down a lot. The only major deals on the new-issue calendar this week were Georgia and New York State, and they are out of the way.”
Georgia on Monday competitively sold $603 million of debt to Citi with a true interest cost of 2.86%, while New York competitively sold $351 million of bonds to JPMorgan with a TIC of 2.93%. Yesterday, Loop Capital Markets priced $280 million of taxable Build America Bonds for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.
“It’s a half week. Friday is a lost cause, and half of tomorrow is a lost cause,” Yosca said. “But it’s not like people don’t want to participate — it’s just a lot of people aren’t around. There’s business to be done, but you’ve got to find the people to do it with.”
The Bond Buyer 20-bond index of 20-year general obligation bond yields declined two basis point this week to 4.33%. That is the lowest level for the index since Oct. 22, when it was 4.31%.
The 11-bond index of higher-grade 20-year GO yields also dropped two basis points this week, to 4.06%, which is the lowest it has been since Oct. 22, when it was 4.04%.
The revenue bond index, which measures 30-year revenue bond yields, fell one basis point this week to 5.03%, but it remains above its 5.02% level from two weeks ago.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note declined four basis points this week to 3.31%, which is the lowest it has been since Oct. 8, when it was 3.24%.
The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond also dropped four basis points this week, to 4.25%. This is the lowest the 30-year yield has been since Oct. 22, when it was 4.24%.
The Bond Buyer one-year note index, which is based on one-year tax-exempt note yields, rose one basis point this week to 0.56%, which is the same level it reached two weeks ago.
The weekly average yield to maturity on The Bond Buyer’s 40-bond municipal bond index, which is based on 40 long-term municipal bond prices, finished at 5.45%, down one basis point from last week’s 5.46%.
