NEW YORK – The California municipal market was mostly flat Tuesday amid light to moderate secondary trading activity as participants focused on the primary.
“Secondary activity is somewhat limited, but there are trades getting done,” a trader in Los Angeles said. “I’m not sure that there’s any change in the scale. I’d say we were basically unchanged.”
The Municipal Market Data’s triple-A scale yielded 2.36% in 10 years Tuesday, matching Monday, while the 20-year scale also remained flat, at 3.36%. The scale for 30-year debt yielded 3.77%, even with Monday.
Tuesday’s triple-A muni scale in 10 years was at 95.5% of comparable Treasuries and 30-year munis were at 96.7%, according to MMD, while 30-year tax-exempt triple-A general obligation bonds were at 107.4% of the comparable London Interbank Offered Rate.
The Treasury market was mostly firmer Tuesday. The benchmark 10-year note was quoted recently at 2.48% after opening at 2.51%.
The 30-year bond was quoted recently at 3.91% after opening at 3.95%. The two-year note was quoted recently at 0.37% after also opening at 0.37%.
In economic data released Tuesday, the pace of U.S. home construction rose for the second straight month in September, expanding 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Building permits fell 5.6% to a 17-month low of 539,000.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected building permits and housing starts to each hit 580,000.
Activity in the California new-issue market was light Tuesday.
Previous Session's Activity
The most actively traded security in the state yesterday was taxable Sonoma County 6s of 2029, which traded 68 times at a high of 102.000 and a low of par.
