After a week with just $1.89 billion of new issuance, the municipal market opened slowly Monday as investors still had little to look forward to in the way of new money bonds.
Potential issuance in the coming week is estimated at $2.76 billion, according to data from Ipreo and The Bond Buyer.
"We're due one day to have some excitement in this market but it's not today," one trader in North Carolina said in an interview. "Definitely a quiet start today and it doesn't seem like there are a lot of brokers in today. There's no supply, so we're still in check there."
The largest deal of the week, $270 million of Barclays Capital-led tax allocation refunding bonds for the Inland Valley, California Development Agency, is scheduled for Monday. $169.5 million of the bonds are federally taxable.
Later in the week, California School Cash Revenue program will issue $200 million of Piper Jaffray-led bonds on Tuesday. Barclays is expected to bring $193 million of New Jersey Educational Facilities bonds on Thursday.
In the competitive market, Delaware plans to issue $227 million of AAA-rated general obligation bonds on Thursday. On Tuesday, the California Department of Water will issue $165.3 million of AAA-rated revenue bonds.
"The economy is kind of sputtering along, so with the new money stuff, from a political standpoint, they're less likely to issue more debt," the trader said. "Issuers probably want to wait for the economy to do better for new projects to pick up."
Yields on bonds were steady Monday morning, according to Municipal Market Data.
Treasury yields were mostly unchanged Monday morning, with the 30-year benchmark Treasury yield at 3.70%, and the two-year yield at 0.33%. The 10-year yield bounced one basis point to 2.75%.
