The municipal market opened Monday morning with little trading activity and a stable tone.
"The market seems stable, going a little bit sideways to firmer on light trading," a trader in New Jersey said in an interview.
Issuance is expected to be nearly non-existent during the holiday week, with potential volume about $15 million, down from total sales of $2.80 billion in the week ended Dec. 20. There are no competitive deals scheduled, after $765.4 million sold last week, based on figures by Ipreo, The Bond Buyer and Thomson Reuters.
Demand for municipal bonds remains low as measured by muni bond mutual fund outflows, according to Lipper FMI numbers. The fund reported outflows of $1.71 billion for the week of Dec. 18, on the heels of $1.90 billion of outflows one week earlier. It was the 30th straight week the funds reported outflows.
Yields on the Municipal Market Data triple-A scale Monday remained unchanged across the curve.
Treasury yields rose from Friday. The benchmark 10-year yield climbed two basis points to 2.91%, while the 30-year yield gained one basis points to 3.83%. The two-year yield remained steady at 0.39% after gaining six basis points last week.
