Munis were steady Thursday as U.S. Treasuries were flat and equities ended up.
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Muni yields were little changed, a day after the asset class rallied on the news of a temporary ceasefire.
“It seemed to be a relief rally [Wednesday], and that’s what everyone’s hoping for. But fundamentally, they’re still major issues that need to be addressed, but people seem to be giving that a pass” on Wednesday, said a source.
However, as the ceasefire grew more fragile as Wednesday wore on and into Thursday, markets took more of a wait-and-see approach Thursday.
“Yesterday, we saw the exuberance. Now it’s sort of cutting back and, ‘Let’s see what Treasuries are doing,” which were little changed at the close, said Sweta Singh, founding partner and portfolio manager at City Different Investments.
All of this, she said, led to a quieter muni market Thursday.
New-issue market
In the competitive market Thursday, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, (Aaa/AAA/AAA/) sold $178.68 million of GO consolidated general improvements bonds, to BofA Securities, with 5s of 10/2026 at 2.32%, 5s of 2031 at 2.61%, 5s of 2036 at 3.05%, 5s of 2041 at 3.43%, 5s of 2046 at 3.98%, 5s of 2051 at 4.26% and 5s of 2055 at 4.35%, callable 4/1/2036.
The county also sold $108.49 million of GO consolidated water and sewer bonds, to BofA Securities, with 5s of 10/2026 at 2.32%, 5s of 2031 at 2.61%, 5s of 2036 at 3.05%, 5s of 2041 at 3.43%, 5s of 2046 at 3.98%, 5s of 2051 at 4.28% and 5s of 2055 at 4.37%, callable 4/1/2036.
Fund flows
Investors added $866 million to municipal bond mutual funds in the week ended Wednesday, following $931.9 million of inflows the prior week, according to LSEG Lipper data.
High-yield funds saw inflows of $50 million compared to outflows of $172.4 million the previous week.
Tax-exempt municipal money market funds saw inflows of $2.349 billion for the week ending April 6, bringing total assets to $147.03 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a weekly publication of EPFR.
The average seven-day simple yield for all tax-free and municipal money-market funds was 1.95%.
Taxable money-fund assets saw $63.906 billion added, bringing the total to $7.65 trillion.
The average seven-day simple yield was 3.34%.
The SIFMA Swap Index was at 2.81% on Wednesday compared to the previous week’s 2.37%.