The municipal market was unchanged Friday amid fairly light secondary trading activity.
“The market is very quiet,” a trader in New York said. “Usually a lot of the business gets done on Friday morning. We had very little of that today.”
“It’s pretty mixed. Things are getting at market prices,” a trader in Chicago said. “People who didn’t get in to put everything in new issues are now going to the secondary and selling up. It’s been a reasonable day. But it’s flat today. I don’t think its up in value. It’s a little bit going both ways.”
A Los Angeles trader added that this week “will be interesting.”
“The market cheapened up in the beginning of the week, but it kind of firmed up in the latter part of the week,” the trader said. “It’s stabilized now. Looks like we have a lot of relative value to Treasuries. That versus the fact that people are still not really liking the yields. I think it could go either way.”
The Treasury market showed losses Friday. The benchmark 10-year note was quoted near the end of the session at 3.23% after opening at 3.18%.
The 30-year bond was quoted near the end of the session at 4.15% after opening at 4.12%. The two-year note was quoted near the end of the session at 0.73% after opening at 0.70%.
The Municipal Market Data triple-A scale yielded 2.97% in 10 years and 3.78% in 20 years Friday, matching Thursday’s levels.
The scale yielded 4.08% in 30 years Friday, also matching Thursday.
Thursday’s triple-A muni scale in 10 years was at 92.8% of comparable Treasuries and 30-year munis were at 98.8%, according to MMD, while 30-year tax-exempt triple-A general obligation bonds were at 103.8% of the comparable London Interbank Offered Rate.
Trades reported by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Friday showed little movement. A dealer sold to a customer taxable California Build America Bonds 7.5s of 2034 at 7.04%, even with where they were sold Thursday. A dealer sold to a customer Newton, Mass., 5s of 2033 at 3.96%, even with where they were sold Thursday.
Bonds from an interdealer trade of taxable Illinois BABs 7.1s of 2035 yielded 7.10%, even with where they were sold Thursday. Bonds from an interdealer trade of taxable Denton County, Tex., BABs 5.97s of 2035 yielded 5.75%, even with where they were sold Thursday.
A dealer sold to a customer taxable Pennsylvania BABs 5.35s of 2030 at 5.41%, even with where they were sold Thursday. Bonds from an interdealer trade of Massachusetts Development Finance Agency 5s of 2040 yielded 5.27%, even with where they traded Thursday.
A dealer sold to a customer insured Massachusetts 5.5s of 2022 at 3.54%, even with where they traded Thursday. A dealer sold to a customer Illinois Finance Authority 6s of 2039 at 6.20%, even with where they were sold Thursday.
The economic calendar was light Friday, as was new-issue activity.
Priti Patnaik contributed to this column.
