Municipal bonds firm in thin trading; supply low; market awaits Friday job data for direction

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Jan. 8 - Municipal bonds traded 2 basis points to 3 bps richer in thin trading on Wednesday, according to market sources.

"There's not much supply, so there's not a whole lot to trade off of," a trader said. "The big number is on Friday with unemployment, and we're just coming off of the New Year, so a lot of people are looking for some direction. There's a lot of reinvestment money on the sidelines out there just waiting for this number to go away."

The Labor Department will release the December jobs report on Friday. Market analysts forecast that 195,000 to 200,000 jobs were added over the month.

Retail muni investors stayed away for the day also, an informed source said.

"We only sold $7 million of bonds today, so it was not a big day for us," the source said.

In pricing action, Ohio was expected to sell $150 million of series 2014A infrastructure improvement general obligation bonds in a competitive offering on Wednesday. Pricing details were not available by press time.

Thursday primary activity

Coming up on Thursday, the San Francisco Unified School District in California is scheduled to price $205 million of Proposition A, election of 2011, series 2014B G.O. bonds (Aa2/AA-/) in a competitive offering.

Tamalpais Advisors Inc. is the financial adviser.

Proceeds will be deposited into the school district's school building fund.

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