The municipal bond market took a breather on Friday as the primary market was devoid of any new issuance and the secondary saw yields remain unchanged, according to a recent read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
After this week's hefty new-issue calendar, the holiday-shortened Thanksgiving week will see volume fall to $911 million from about $7 billion this week. The calendar will be composed of around $730 million of negotiated deals and about $181 million of competitive sales.
Meanwhile, municipal bond fund inflows rose in the latest week, continuing the string of recent inflows. Funds have seen inflows in 40 out of 47 weeks this year.
Funds that report weekly had $590.0 million of inflows for the period ending Nov. 20, down from $649.0 million the week before, according to Lipper FMI. Assets of all weekly reporting municipal funds rose to $333.7 billion from $314.3 billion. The four-week moving average rose to $340.3 million from $203.1 million.
Flows for long-term muni funds were positive, as they reported $306.5 million in inflows, up from an inflow of $186.0 million in the previous week. Long-term municipal mutual fund assets increased to $180.3 billion from $165.0 billion last week. The four-week moving average saw an inflow of $97.0 million, up from an outflow of $1.2 million last week.
High yield funds reported inflows totaling $171.8 million following inflows of $127.5 million previously. Assets rose to $51.4 billion from $48.2 billion last week. The four-week moving average rose to $84.6 million from $29.4 million.
Elsewhere, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, fell two basis points to 4.39% in the week ending Nov. 20 from 4.41% in the previous week.
The 20-Bond GO Index of 20-year general obligation yields fell five basis points to 3.93%, from 3.98% the previous week. The 11-Bond GO Index of higher-grade 20-year GO yields also lost five basis points, to 3.78% from 3.83% the previous week. And The Bond Buyer's 25-bond Revenue Bond Index remained unchanged at 4.62%. It stands at the lowest level since Nov. 6, when it was 4.61%.
Secondary Market
Municipal bond yields were unchanged at mid-session, according to MMD.
Treasury prices were little changed with the two-year note yield flat at 0.51% from Thursday's market close. The 10-year yield was off two basis points at 2.32% and the 30-year was off one basis point at 3.04%.
On Thursday, the muni to Treasury ratio was mixed. The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio closed lower at 92.1% from 92.8% on Wednesday; it stood at 94.8% on Tuesday and 93.6% on Monday. The 30-year muni to Treasury ratio closed higher at 101.9% from 101.1% on Wednesday; it stood at 101.6% on Tuesday and from 101% on Monday.
