Primary bond market

Another $2 billion-plus was reported flowing into municipal bond mutual funds in the latest week, continuing to be a supportive demand component for munis.

The increasing influence of institutional market participants is even stronger in the taxable muni sector, a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board report finds.

The $1.4 billion seaport revenue refunding bond deal Wells Fargo will price next week will be the largest port transaction since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Municipals are tethered to Treasuries, more so in recent sessions, and have cheapened, but strong technicals — $18.5 billion of net negative supply and large reinvestment needs — still hang overhead.

Triple-A benchmarks saw cuts of one to two basis points across the curve, but still outperformed two days of UST weakness and have outperformed UST losses since the start of the month.

Better-than-expected job gains, a rising UST complex and an increase in supply to test municipals' resolve.

Secondary trading petered off into Thursday afternoon, holding triple-A benchmarks steady as most participants await Friday's nonfarm payrolls.

The short end of the market has little room to fall lower.

With all eyes on Friday’s employment report, since several additional strong months of gains are needed for the Federal Reserve to be comfortable announcing a tapering of its asset purchases, Wednesday’s news could signal trouble.

Tighter bidding on bonds 10 years and in pushed high-grade benchmark curves to bump yields.