Municipal bonds turned mixed on Thursday on a cold and snowy day in the Northeast as stocks surged to new highs.
Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale was stronger in late trading.
The 10-year muni benchmark yield dropped to 2.254% on Thursday from the final read of 2.263% on Wednesday, according to
The MBIS benchmark index is updated hourly on the
Top-rated municipal bonds finished weaker on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose one basis point to 1.99% from 1.98% on Wednesday, while the 30-year GO yield gained two basis points to 2.56% from 2.55% according to the final read of MMD’s triple-A scale.
U.S. Treasuries were mixed in late trade. The yield on the two-year Treasury gained to 1.96% on Thursday from 1.94% on Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield was flat from 2.45% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury decreased to 2.78% from 2.79%.
The Dow Jones Industrial average passed the 25,000 mark on Thursday to trade up 0.64% in late activity. The S&P 500 Index gained 0.46% while the Nasdaq Index increased 0.25%.
The Dow moved up as better-than-expected data on manufacturing and private payrolls made analysts believe that a pick-up in economic growth combined with new tax breaks will push up corporate earnings.
On Thursday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 81.3% compared with 81.0% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 92.0% versus 91.2%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 46,720 trades on Wednesday on volume of $16.25 billion.
Tax-exempt money market funds saw inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $130.8 million, bringing total net assets to $131.06 billion in the week ended Jan. 1, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.
This followed an outflow of $261 million to $130.93 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 199 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds passed the 1.0% mark, finishing the week at 1.03%, up from 0.79% the previous week.
The total net assets of the 826 weekly reporting taxable money funds increased $4.66 billion to $2.675 trillion in the week ended Jan. 3, after an inflow of $11.07 billion to $2.670 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds rose to 0.92% from 0.89% from the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,025 weekly reporting money funds increased $4.79 billion to $2.806 trillion in the week ended Jan. 3, after inflows of $10.81 billion to $2.801 trillion in the prior week.
Primary market
RBC Capital Markets is set to price the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s $381.195 million of state lease revenue bonds for state government buildings on Friday.
The deal is rated Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, BBB-plus by S&P Global Ratings and A-minus by Fitch Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $5.19B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $855.6 million to $5.19 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $2.40 billion of competitive sales and $2.79 billion of negotiated deals.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
