U.S. municipal bond yields rise sharply

SAN FRANCISCO : Benchmark U.S. municipal bond prices fell on Thursday, lifting yields as much as 9 basis points, following rising oil prices and a steep selloff in U.S. Treasuries.Yields on AAA-rated muni bonds in the 2038-46 maturity rose 9 basis points, according to a final scale read from Municipal Market Data (MMD), a unit of Thomson Reuters.

Oil prices rose more than 4 percent on Thursday, with Brent crude at its highest in about 16 months, extending gains after OPEC and Russia agreed to restrict output to speed up the rebalancing of a long-oversupplied market.

Greg Saulnier, muni research analyst at MMD, said rising oil prices, along with stronger-than-expected manufacturing data and a steep selloff of Treasuries, weighed heavily on bonds on Thursday.

“What looks to be more tax-exempt primary supply next week and over $ 5 billion in muni fund outflows the past two weeks,” said Saulnier, has resulted in “notable selling in the tax-exempt market.”