A day after seeing the market rally and strengthen by five basis points on the long end, munis were quiet and flat ahead of another lackluster calendar, with volume for next week under $4 billion.
“Munis have momentum going into next week for sure,” said one New York trader. “We rallied yesterday and although there was not a lot of action this week, the deals that did come, saw dense demand.”
The trader noted the $3.7 billion of next week's expected issuance is above this week's total, but below the 2018 weekly average of $4.3 billion and well below the 2017 weekly average of $7.3 billion.
“Next week looks taxable top heavy but after that, there are good names with decent sized deals coming — I would expect the impetus from this week to carry over into next week.”
Lipper: Muni bond funds saw inflows
Investors in municipal bond funds put cash into the funds for the third consecutive week, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.
The weekly reporters saw $445.450 million of inflows in the week of March 21, after inflows of $339.142 million in the previous week.
Exchange traded funds reported inflows of $40.074 million, after inflows of $76.237 million in the previous week. Ex-ETFs, muni funds saw $405.377 million of inflows, after inflows of $262.905 million in the previous week.
The four-week moving average remained positive at $150.101 million, after turning green at $70.049 million in the previous week. A moving average is an analytical tool used to smooth out price changes by filtering out fluctuations.
Long-term muni bond funds had inflows of $152.371 million in the latest week after inflows of $181.790 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had inflows of $358.004 million after inflows of $152.733 million in the prior week.
National funds had inflows of $502.293 million after inflows of $356.119 million in the previous week. High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $65.345 million in the latest week, after inflows of $110.948 million the previous week.
Week's actively traded issues
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week ended March 23 were from Puerto Rico, New York and Wisconsin issuers, according to
In the GO bond sector, the Puerto Rico 8s of 2035 traded 38 times. In the revenue bond sector, the New York City Transitional Finance Authority 3.625s of 2047 traded 70 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Wisconsin Public Finance Authority 4.269s of 2040 traded 28 times.
Week's actively quoted issues
Puerto Rico, New York and California names were among the most actively quoted bonds in the week ended March 23, according to Markit.
On the bid side, the Puerto Rico GO 8s of 2035 were quoted by 54 unique dealers. On the ask side, the New York City taxable 5.237s of 2021 were quoted by 158 dealers. And among two-sided quotes, the California taxable 7.55s of 2039 were quoted by 23 unique dealers.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $6.92B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $1.494 billion to $6.92 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $2.49 billion of competitive sales and $4.43 billion of negotiated deals.
Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 41,872 trades on Thursday on volume of $13.136 billion.
California, New York and Texas were the states with the most trades, with the Golden State taking 16.056% of the market, the Empire State taking 15.669% and the Lone Star State taking 9.428%.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
