Taylor Riggs

The typical Friday malaise set in for tax-exempts as munis traded mostly flat in the morning session.

With the majority of new issues priced earlier in the week, the tax-exempt market took direction from Treasuries in an overall risk-off trade following poor economic data Thursday morning.

With most of the new issues for the week already priced, the tax-exempt market pulled strength from a risk-off Treasury rally.

Weaker than expected economic news drove Treasuries higher Thursday morning, but didn’t excite munis enough to get secondary trading.

In the midst of a light primary calendar, traders in the secondary market bought paper in the belly of the curve in search for yield.

With few new issues providing direction Wednesday, tax-exempts traded steady after a buying spree in the morning cooled off.

Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority bonds traded weaker Friday after reports the Authority may default on its bonds, even though Puerto Rico Government Development Bank president Javier Ferrer refuted the claim.

The tax-exempt market saw a bifurcation this week with demand in the primary and less enthusiastic trading in the secondary.

Trading of Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority bonds continued to weaken Friday afternoon as traders noted default scares also spread to other bonds within Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority bonds traded weaker Friday morning following reports the Authority may default on its bonds as early as next week.

A California Redevelopment Agency came to market with refunding bonds Thursday despite recent negative news concerning the dissolution of RDAs.

Traders looked to the primary as Wells Fargo won the bid for $300 million taxable Illinois sales revenue bonds.

With most of the week's primary issuance already priced, the municipal bond market set its eyes on a $300 million auction of Illinois taxable bonds.

The municipal bond market ended mostly unchanged Wednesday as traders continued to note a divergence between demand in the primary and secondary.

Taxable municipal bond issues continued to roll out in the primary as those deals garnered more attention than many of their tax-exempt counterparts.

Several Illinois taxable deals are expected to price Wednesday coming off strong reception of a tax-exempt Illinois issue Tuesday.

The tax-exempt market looked to the high-grade competitive market Tuesday for direction as Louisiana priced $300 million of general obligation bonds in the biggest deal of the day.

The prospect of increased regulation is becoming a concern for the public power industry, experts said at the Standard & Poor's electric cooperative and public power conference.

Tax-exempt traders described the market as "apathetic" as buyers and sellers in the secondary weren't convinced to push the market in either direction.

The tax-exempt market traded softer Tuesday morning ahead of some big deals in the primary market as traders said bid lists surfaced early.