State bonds snapped up

With tax-free municipals being one of the few outposts these days for a decent yield, California had no trouble lining up customers for its sale of $1.75 billion in general obligation bonds. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s office said it got nearly $900 million in retail orders Tuesday and Wednesday. The final yield on a 30-year bond was 4.96 percent. The bond offerings raise money for voter-approved infrastructure projects and to pay off higher-yielding debt. From Tom Petruno's new Money & Co. blog in the LAT:

Credit market turmoil in February and March left many investors wary of muni bonds. That also produced spectacular bargains: When the state sold $1.75-billion in bonds in early March it had to pay 5.4% on the 30-year issue in that deal. Individual investors, smartly, were all over that bond sale. They put in orders for nearly 90% of the total issued. So this time around, as yields have declined, individuals weren’t quite as enthused. But getting retail investors to take almost half the bonds still is a big achievement compared with what the state was used to getting in recent years.