Trading on bonds from the $211.3 million Anchorage, Alaska, general obligation deal priced last week spiked on Monday morning in the secondary, as the secondary weakened overall.
The 4s in 2044 were one of the five most actively traded Cusips, according to EMMA. The trades were mostly odd-lots but there were two block trades with a 1.5 million inter-dealer trade and a 5 million customer sold trade.
The bonds have strengthened modestly from the trading, with their high yield falling by four basis points to 4.07% from when the bonds were freed to trade on Thursday.
Traders said the Anchorage bonds performance is notable because the municipal market's selloff has caused most of the secondary to weaken.
"We're seeing wider prints in the secondary for sure," a trader in the Midwest said.
He said the selloff's impact on the secondary can be seen in widening spreads on several maturities in the $205.4 million Columbus, Ohio, sewer revenue bonds that were priced in the primary on Thursday and are now free to trade.
Spreads on bonds maturing in nine to 17 years widened from one to eight and a half basis points, according to data provided by Thomson Reuters. They fell for one of the three 17-year maturities, the one with a 3.30% coupon, the lowest coupon of the three, by six basis points.
He said the reason the Anchorage bonds are doing so well is because the name is not often seen in the market.
"There is not a lot of Alaska paper to begin with," he said. "If you have an A-plus bond north of 60 [that's a desirable bond]."
The Anchorage bonds were originally priced last Wednesday.
Positive ISM Manufacturing Index Spurs Sell-Off
The ISM manufacturing index for October came in 2.4 points higher than September, at 59. This number is higher than analysts' prediction, which had pegged the number to fall slightly to 56.
The new order index, which is considered one of the most important pieces of data, increased by 5.8 to 65.8.
Positive economic reports traditionally are a negative for municipal bonds, and this report was no exception, market participants said. Traders listed the manufacturing report as the primary reason municipal bonds sold off Monday morning.
Bonds maturing in two to five years yields rose as much as two basis points, according to Municipal Market Data.
The six-year maturity sold off between one to three basis points, by two to four basis points for the seven-year maturity, and between one and three basis points for bonds maturing in eight to nine years.
Bonds maturing in 10 to 30 years yields grew up to two basis points.
Traders said munis were following Treasuries yields, which rose mildly on Monday. The two-year note increased three basis points to 0.53%, the 10-year one basis point to 2.36%, and the 30-year one basis point to 3.08%.
