With yields on the US municipal bond market rising, local issuers on Monday postponed another six bond sales, totalling $331 million, that were originally scheduled to price later this week. Since mid-June, on the prospect that the Federal Reserve could change course on its easy monetary policy as the economy improves, the municipal bond market has seen a total of $2.6 billion in sales either cancelled or delayed.
Last week a total of nine deals for $2.3 billion were postponed.
On Monday prices in municipal bond market extended losses, with Municipal Market data preliminary reading showing AAA-rated municipal yields up by as much as 20 basis points.
On Friday, triple-A 10-year and 30-year bond yields rose to 2.63 percent and 3.96 percent, respectively, a high since August 2011, according to MMD, a unit of Thomson Reuters.
Georgia's $157.3 million refunding bond sale scheduled to price on Wednesday through competitive bidding has been postponed indefinitely, Diana Pope, director of the state's financing and investment division, said on Monday.
The sale consisted of $13.7 million of refunding bonds with serial maturities from 2019 through 2024 and another $143.6 million of refunding bonds with serial maturities from 2022 through 2024, according to the preliminary official statement.
The $685 million new money bond portion of the sale is going forward as planned on Wednesday, Pope said.