Munis Enjoy Exodus of Cash From Stocks

The municipal bond rally marched on Wednesday as volatility in the stock market drove cash into safe assets despite a large range of deals entering the market.

“Buyers have a lot of money to put to work,” a trader in New York said. “There were all sorts of buyers and even a few funds in there today.”

Certain spots on the yield curve fell as much as five basis points and the primary market was firm.

“New issues are running ahead of the market,” the trader said, noting the high-grade Wisconsin deal acted as a bellwether and caused participants to mark prices up.

The 10-year muni yield fell four basis points to 2.70%, its lowest since Nov. 12, 2010, extending its rally to 57 points from April 11. The two-year yield fell four basis points to 0.50% and the 30-year yield fell two basis points to 4.43%.

Tax-exempt prices have been steady or rising for the last 22 sessions.

“There is a bond grab,” a trader in California said, adding that new issues were being absorbed easily, so few people are concerned the rally is coming to an end.

“Some guys are having difficulty adjusting, but if munis stay at these levels they won’t have a choice but to adjust,” he said.

The strong demand helped underwriter Citi slash yields by five to seven basis points across the curve as it sold $276 million of general obligation debt for ­Wisconsin.

Rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, the bonds offered yields from 0.62% in 2013 to 3.19% in 2022.

“The Wisconsin bump underscored the amount of bond redemption money that is sitting on the sidelines, waiting for any concession to the market to pounce,” Randy Smolik wrote in his daily commentary for MMD.

Wells Fargo brought $600 million of Virginia Department of Transportation revenue bonds to market. The deal was rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch. It offered yields from 2% in 2018 to 4.60% in 2036.

Jefferies & Co. priced $327.5 million of school district revenue bonds for the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, in four series.

Series A, rated A1 by Moody’s and an equivalent A-plus by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, offered yields ranging from 0.85% in 2012 to 4.80% in 2030.

Series B and D carried Aa3 and AA-plus ratings thanks to a credit wrap from Assured Guaranty. Yields ranged from 0.73% in 2012 to 5.25% in 2039.

Series C, unenhanced but rated Aa3 by Moody’s and A-plus by S&P and Fitch, offered yields ranging from 0.80% in 2012 to 4.24% in 2025.

In the taxable market, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sold $750 million of rarely seen 100-year debt. Yields were 130 basis points over 30-year Treasuries.

Trading of Treasuries was volatile but yields finished lower throughout, helping to keep muni valuations attractive. The two-year Treasury yield dropped four basis points to 0.55%, the 10-year yield fell five basis points to 3.17%, and the 30-year yield was slashed three points to 4.31%.

In a strategy note published Tuesday, Citi analysts said the recent correlation among muni and Treasury price movements suggests that the idea that the two markets have diverged — which became popular during the financial crisis — might be overhyped.

“While a lot of ink has been [spilled] discussing the transition of tax-exempts from rates to credit space, the recent spike in correlations could make one wonder if the prognosis is premature,” they wrote.

They say correlations are strongest with high-quality paper in the short to intermediate range, but weaker among long-term munis, which continue to suffer from negative credit perceptions.

Among lower-grade paper, the transition of munis from a spread-based product to becoming a credit-based product is more pronounced, they noted, adding that yield volatility can be greatest on long paper.

In other market news, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to release a factbook of first-quarter muni market trading statistics Thursday.

In this inaugural edition, the MSRB found that trading volume was down in the quarter but the actual number of trades was higher.

Par amount traded in the quarter totaled just $842 billion, reflecting 8% less trading than the same quarter one year ago and nearly 14% less than the final three months of 2010.

The number of total trades, however, increased 15.7% to 2.95 million trades, the second highest since the MSRB began collecting information.

Rob Novembre, managing director at Arbor Research and Trading, said this makes sense as individual investors have been increasing the amount of buying bonds directly rather than through mutual funds, which have seen outflows for the past 25 weeks.

“It is an interesting phenomenon to see the mutual funds losing money for six months straight, yet retail seems to express their desire to own the market via individual bonds,” he said. “Direct bond buying from individuals is pushing up the number of trades but since they buy in smaller lots, then overall principal volume is down.”

Customer buying activity reached an average daily par amount of $6.66 billion in the quarter, the MSRB said, accounting for 49.1% of the overall volume during the quarter, versus 51% one year ago and 53.8% in the previous quarter.

The average daily number of customer purchases totaled 22,519 in the quarter, accounting for 47.3% of all trades, down from 49.9% one year ago and 50.5% in fourth-quarter 2010.

Customer sales accounted for 35.3% of all trades in the quarter, by par volume, compared to 33.8% one year ago and 31.2% in the previous quarter.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM BOND BUYER