NEW YORK – The tax-exempt market was stronger for the third consecutive trading session as market participants felt more confident entering the market as deals were very well received in the latter portion of the week.
“Munis are all over the place” recently, a Chicago trader said. “I can’t sell them and now I can’t buy them. Welcome to munis.”
Munis were stronger Friday morning, according to the Municipal Market Data scale. Yields inside five years were steady while the six-year fell one to three basis points. Yields on the seven- to 14-year fell between three and seven basis points while yields outside 15 years fell up to four basis points.
On Thursday, the two-year yield finished steady at 0.36%. The 10-year yield fell six basis points to 2.25% while the 30-year yield fell three basis points to 3.42%.
Looking to next week, the tax-exempt market can expect $3.36 billion, down from this week’s revised $5.53 billion. In negotiated deals, $2.80 billion is expected to come to market, down from this week’s revised $4.24 billion. On the competitive calendar, $557.9 million is expected, down from this week’s revised $1.29 billion.
In economic news, sales of new single-family houses fell 1.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 313,000 in February. The rate fell below the 325,000 expected by economists and less than the revised January rate of 318,000.
“Given the rise in the current new home sales component of the homebuilder sentiment survey to levels not seen since the spring of 2007, along with weather this winter that should have been less disruptive than usual to buyer traffic in parts of the country, the decline in new home sales over the last two months is somewhat disappointing,” wrote economists at RDQ Economics. “The underlying trend in new home sales is little changed, however, with these sales bouncing around modestly above the 300,000 level over the last six months.”
