CREDIT MARKETS

Treasuries:
Treasury prices rose Thursday, pushing yields lower, after a government report showed continuing stress in U.S. employment and amid rising concern that lawmakers’ plan to stimulate the economy will not be effective.
U.S. government debt briefly pared gains after the Treasury sold $14 billion in 30-year bonds, finishing off the massive amount of debt sold this week in the government’s quarterly refunding. Earlier Thursday, jobless claims declined by 8,000 to 623,000 in the week ended Feb. 7. Continuing claims, an indication of the difficulty of finding a new job, reached a record 4.81 million. Retail sales unexpectedly rose in January, up 1 percent from December. Excluding automobiles, sales unexpectedly rose 0.9 percent. Economists attributed the gain in part to seasonal factors, while also noting that figures for the previous two months were revised lower. In the Treasury’s auction of 30-year bonds, bidders offered $2.02 for every dollar available, compared to an average of $2.19 at the last 10 auctions. Indirect bidders, purchased 33.9 percent of the offering, compared to an average of 23.7 percent over that span.

Municipals:
Texas A&M University System led tax-exempt borrowers today in the U.S. as a two-month drop in short-term yields tempers demand from individual investors. Longer-term state and local bonds performed better than short-term securities today. Yields on benchmark debt due in less than 10 years, favored by so-called retail buyers, have fallen about two percentage points the past four months, Yields on 30-year AAA general obligation bonds fell two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 5.09 percent today, the lowest in four weeks, according to a daily survey by Concord, Massachusetts-based Municipal Market Advisors. The 10-year yield gauge held at 3.28 percent, the lowest since January 2008. The final read on the MMD was as follows 2010-2020: yields were lower by 1 bpts; 2021-2039 yields were lower by 2 bpts.
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Commentary/New Issues

Corporate:
$1.25 BLN, Cox Communications, 8.375%, 3/1/39, Baa3/BBB-, +490bp

ABS:
Nothing

Agency:
Nothing

New Issues larger than $250mm. The fixed income offerings mentioned above are for informational purposes only. Toussaint Capital Partners, LLC, member NASD/SIPC, and/or its affiliates may be a participant in the offering mentioned and therefore offerings will be subject to availability.

All statistical data is sourced from Bloomberg Financial Markets