Yields down as supply hard to find

Yields have gone further south as minimal action occurs in the primary and the secondary, with most market participants on hiatus until after the New Year.

Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale was stronger in early trading on Wednesday.

The 10-year muni benchmark yield dipped to 2.215% from Tuesday's final read of 2.343%, according to Municipal Bond Information Services. The MBIS 30-year benchmark muni yield dropped to 2.785% from 2.819%.

The MBIS benchmark index, which is comprised of investment-grade municipal securities, is updated hourly on the Bond Buyer Data Workstation.

Top-rated municipal bonds were stronger still on Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was between three and five basis points lower from 2.07% on Tuesday, while the 30-year GO decreased between three and five basis points from 2.63%, according to a read of MMD’s triple-A scale.

U.S. Treasuries were mostly stronger on Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury nudged up to 1.91% from 1.90%, the 10-year Treasury yield decreased to 2.45% from 2.46% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury fell to 2.79% from 2.81%.

On Tuesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 83.8% compared with 84.4% on Friday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 93.3% versus 94.4%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 30,355 trades on Tuesday on volume of $7.743 billion.

Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $29 million to $3.12 billion on Wednesday. The total is comprised of $1.25 billion of competitive sales and $1.87 billion of negotiated deals.

Primary market
The primary market will continue to go through the motions with little action and even fewer participants around until early January.

The sanctity of the general obligation bond took a hit from recent bankruptcies and are no longer considered bulletproof. So some investors now prefer buying revenue bonds.

As of Dec. 26, the market saw $159.93 billion of GO bonds issued, down from $178.81 billion in 2016. Issuers brought $249.39 billion of revenue bonds, compared with $265.99 billion last year. Taxable issuance this year is up slightly to $33.99 billion from $29.92 billion in 2016.

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Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation. Click here for a brief tour of the Workstation, or contact Vanessa Kim at 212-803-8474 for more information.

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