Traders in the tax-exempt market said there were only a few hours left to get work done for the week before market participants starting breaking for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Most said it would quiet down by about noon Wednesday, but in the morning trading session, there was last minute work to be done.
"It's actually a little busy for the day before a holiday," a New York trader said.
After setting record lows over the previous two weeks, the market took a breather Monday and Tuesday. The 10-year Municipal Market Data yield rose one basis point to 1.51%, hovering just above the record low of 1.50% set Friday.
The 30-year MMD yield remained unchanged for the third session at its record low of 2.54% set Friday. The two-year finished steady at 0.30% for the 38th consecutive trading session.
Treasuries weakened for the third session Wednesday. The benchmark 10-year yield jumped three basis points to 1.69% while the 30-year yield increased two basis points to 2.83%. The two-year yield rose one basis point to 0.28%.
In economic news,
Economists had expected 400,000 initial jobless claims and 3.340 million continuing claims.
"Unlike with prior disasters, the Labor Department has not provided numerical estimates for the impact of the storm on initial claims in the most recent week," wrote economists at RDQ Economics. "To assess the effect of Sandy on initial claims we can look at the state-by-state data, which are released with a one-week lag. In the week ending November 10th, almost three quarters of the rise in unadjusted initial claims was in the four states that reported their increase was due to Sandy. At this point, however, there does not appear to be any major shift in underlying claims trends outside of the storm impacts."
In next week's primary market, municipals can expect $7.92 billion to be issued, up from this week's revised $2.29 billion. On the negotiated calendar, $5.82 billion is expected to be priced, up from this week's revised $2.01 billion. In competitive deals, $2.10 billion should be auctioned, up from this week's revised $276.4 million.
