Munis mixed, as long-term USTs weaken slightly

Munis were mixed Friday as long-term U.S. Treasury yields cheapened slightly and equities ended down.

Friday closed out a volatile week in the muni market, plagued by a two-day selloff that saw MMD yields rise up to 16 basis points in the belly.

"We're still seeing continued yield pressure out there from the market outlook investors have with the conflict in Iran," said Ajay Thomas, head of public finance at FHN Financial.

New-issue calendar
The new-issue calendar is an estimated $8.973 billion, with $7.928 billion of negotiated deals on tap and $1.045 billion of competitives.

The Back Belt Energy Gas District leads the negotiated calendar with $1.225 billion of gas project revenue bonds, followed by the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority with $983 million of water and sewer system second general resolution revenue bonds.

The competitive calendar is led by Aiken County Consolidated School District, South Carolina, with $200 million of general obligation bonds, followed by Wake County, North Carolina, with $199.69 million of GO public improvement bonds.

CUSIP requests rise
In February, the aggregate total of identifier requests for new municipal securities ? including municipal bonds, long-term and short-term notes, and commercial paper ? rose 14.2% versus January totals.

On a year-over-year basis, overall municipal volume was up 0.7% through the end of February.

Texas led state-level municipal request volume with a total of 113 new CUSIP requests in February, followed by Illinois (71) and New York (71).

For the specific category of municipal bonds, there was an increase of 27.8% month-over-month, but requests are still down 6.7% year-over-year.