The municipal market was unchanged to slightly weaker yesterday amid light to moderate trading in the secondary.
"There's not a whole lot trading right now," a trader in New York said. "It's somewhat quiet. It just feels pretty flat to me. I'm not really seeing much movement."
"We might be cheapening up a little bit on the long end, but not much," a trader in Los Angeles said. "We're maybe a basis point weaker out long, if anything. But overall, we're pretty quiet, and pretty flat."
The Treasury market showed losses yesterday. The benchmark 10-year note finished at 3.74% after opening at 3.65%. The yield on the two-year note finished at 0.86% after opening at 0.80%. The yield on the 30-year bond finished at 4.71% after opening at 4.63%.
The Municipal Market Data triple-A scale yielded 2.87% in 10 years and 3.81% in 20 years yesterday, following levels of 2.87% and 3.80% on Tuesday. The scale yielded 4.18% in 30 years yesterday, after 4.17% Tuesday.
Tuesday's triple-A muni scale in 10 years was at 78.4% of comparable Treasuries and 30-year munis were at 89.9%, while 30-year tax-exempt triple-A general obligation bonds were at 92.5% of the comparable London Interbank Offered Rate.
In the new-issue market yesterday, Morgan Keegan & Co. priced $461 million of electric system subordinate revenue refunding bonds for Memphis.
The bonds mature from 2014 through 2018, with a top yield of 3.00%. Full pricing information was not available by press time. The credit is rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA-plus by Standard & Poor's.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced $373.4 million of revenue bonds for the Allegheny County, Pa., Hospital Development Authority.
The bonds mature from 2011 through 2023. Full pricing information was not available by press time.
The credit is rated Aa3 by Moody's, A-plus by Standard & Poor's, and AA-minus by Fitch Ratings.
Morgan Stanley priced $332.8 million of hospital revenue refunding bonds for the North Carolina Medical Care Commission, with a top yield of 5.04% in 2034.
Full pricing information was not available by press time. The credit is rated Aa3 by Moody's and AA-minus by Standard & Poor's.
Florida's Inland Protection Financing Corp. competitively sold $60.6 million of taxable Build America Bonds to Morgan Keegan with a true interest cost of 3.36%.
The bonds mature from 2017 through 2024, with yields ranging from 4.85% priced at par in 2020, or 3.15% after the 35% federal subsidy, to 5.40% priced at par in 2024, or 3.51% after the subsidy. Bonds maturing from 2017 through 2019 were not formally re-offered.
The IPFC also competitively sold $36.1 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds to JPMorgan with a TIC of 1.91%.
The bonds mature from 2010 through 2016, and were not formally re-offered.
The credit is rated Aa3 by Moody's, AA by Standard & Poor's, and AA-minus by Fitch.
Raymond James & Associates priced $53.7 million of taxable common school fund advancement purchase funding bonds for the Indiana Bond Bank.
The bonds mature in 2010, 2011, and from 2015 through 2017, and were priced to yield between 20 and 104 basis points over the comparable Treasury yields.
The bonds, which are not callable, are rated AA-plus by Standard & Poor's.
Raymond James also priced $48.6 million of GOs for Illinois' Minooka Community Consolidated School District No. 201 in two series.
Bonds from the $42.4 million series of GO refunding bonds mature from 2022 through 2028, with yields ranging from 3.67% with a 5.25% coupon in 2022 to 4.37% with a 5% coupon in 2028. The bonds are not callable.
Bonds from the $6.2 million series of GO capital appreciation bonds mature from 2022 through 2028, with yields to maturity ranging from 4.82% in 2022 to 5.38% in 2028. The bonds are not callable.
The credit is rated AA by Standard & Poor's.
In economic data released yesterday, groundbreaking for new home construction increased 2.8% to 591,000 in January as building permits decreased by 4.9% to 621,000.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 580,000 housing starts and 620,000 building permits.
Import prices jumped 1.4% in January. Economists polled by Thomson expected January import prices to rise 0.8%.
Industrial production rose 0.9% in January while capacity utilization increased to 72.6%. The gain in industrial production was the largest since August.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had expected industrial production to rise 0.7% and a 72.6% level for capacity utilization.
