Secondary bond market

After the FOMC made taper official, high-grade benchmark yields ended the day one to three basis points better while USTs ended the day higher after an up-and-down trading session that moved the 30-year back above 2%.

The FOMC will likely take the opportunity to profess its reliance on data to decide liftoff and reiterate the threshold for a rate hike remains higher than for taper.

Chuck Stavitski and Elaine Brennan of Roosevelt & Cross and Ken Bieger of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission talk about how the Canadian border closing due to COVID-19 affected upstate New York issuers. Chip Barnett hosts. (16 minutes)

Though monetary policy has been in the forefront, at mid-month the tone changed with global inflation outlooks and federal infrastructure and social package in flux.

A lighter, $5 billion calendar, heavy on healthcare, kicks off November. Most participants agree volatility in U.S. Treasuries will be a leading factor for municipal market performance. Uncertainty in Washington also isn't helping the asset class.

Amid a flattening municipal yield curve and inversion of the Treasury market, new issues fared better than the secondary on Thursday as participants prepared for month end.

ICI reported the lowest inflows since outflows in March, while exchanged-traded funds saw an uptick.

As of now, returns for the month will very likely end in the red. The Bloomberg U.S. Municipal Index is at -0.40% for the month and +0.39% for the year.

Despite a short-end U.S. Treasury rally, municipals face pressure on the one- and two-year as participants look to month-end positioning.

Volume falls slightly in the week of October 25 with total potential volume estimated at $7.408 billion: $6.036 billion of negotiated deals and $1.372 billion in the competitive market.