The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes were narrowly mixed this week, with the municipal market remaining mostly flat as the tone varied throughout the past few sessions.
“The market’s had kind of a sideways week,” said George Strickland, managing director and portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management.
“It’s feeling heavier, the calendar is starting to build. Not all the deals are going away completely. But the market is not necessarily a bastion of strength. It’s still open for business, but it is feeling a bit tenuous.”
Strickland also said the snowstorm that blanketed much of the Northeast Wednesday had some effect on market activity, but its impact was largely gone by yesterday.
“A lot of the market is New York-centric, but there are other places where people buy and sell bonds,” he said. “At most, it took out one day’s activity.”
Leading the new-issue market this week, Hawaii came to market with $721.6 million of debt, including $500 million of taxable Build America Bonds. The deal was priced on Wednesday by Citi, and also included $221.6 million of tax-exempt bonds.
On Tuesday, Barclays Capital priced $530 million of revenue bonds for the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority on behalf of Yale University.
The Bond Buyer 20-bond index of 20-year general obligation bond yields declined two basis points this week to 4.34%, which is the lowest level for the index since Jan. 21, when it was 4.30%.
The 11-bond index of higher-grade 20-year GO yields also dropped two basis points this week, to 4.06%. This is the lowest the index has been since Jan. 21, when it was 4.02%.
The revenue bond index, which measures 30-year revenue bond yields, was unchanged this week at 4.96%.
The Bond Buyer one-year note index, which is based on one-year tax-exempt note yields, rose one basis point this week to 0.45%, but remained below its 0.49% level from two weeks ago.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose 13 basis points this week to 3.73%, which is the highest the yield has been since Jan. 14, when it was 3.74%.
The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased 15 basis points this week to 4.68%, which is its highest level since Jan. 7, when it was 4.69%.
The weekly average yield to maturity on The Bond Buyer’s 40-bond municipal bond index, which is based on 40 long-term municipal bond prices, finished at 5.32%, down two basis points from last week’s 5.34%.
