Market Post: Munis Steady as Primary Wraps Up Pricing

The tax-exempt market traded flat Wednesday as traders said there weren't any trades to show strengthening or weakening.

With most of the primary market priced, focus turned to the secondary.

"I would probably say it's basically unchanged," a San Francisco trader said. "I'm not seeing much that would indicate things are up, but I'm certainly not seeing anything that's weaker."

He added there isn't anything in the primary today he is participating in. "We are mostly in the secondary because the structure there fits better. We are seeing a few things out there that have similar prices that we've been seeing."

In the primary market, Goldman, Sachs & Co. priced $318.2 million of Nassau Country Interim Finance Authority sales tax secured bonds, rated AAA by Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

Yields in repricing for the first series, $142.2 million of tax-exempt bonds, ranged from 0.49% with 3% and 4% coupons in a split 2015 maturity to 2.17% with a 5% coupon in 2025. The bonds are callable at par in 2022. Yields were lowered as much as five basis points from preliminary pricing.

Price guidance was released on the second series, $176 million of taxable bonds, with maturities between 2014 and 2023. Spreads ranged from 45 basis points to 120 basis points above the comparable Treasury yields.

Goldman also priced Nassau County Local Economic Assistance Corp. revenue bonds for the Winthrop-University Hospital Association Project, rated Baa1 by Moody's Investors Service and BBB-plus by Fitch. Prices were not available by press time.

On Tuesday, the 10-year Municipal Market Data yield and the 30-year yield fell one basis point each to 1.69% and 2.84%, respectively. The two-year closed flat for the sixth session at 0.30%.

Treasuries continued to weaken Wednesday afternoon. The benchmark 10-year yield rose one basis point to 1.63% while the 30-year yield increased three basis points to 2.84%. The two-year was steady at 0.24%.

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