Bond Prices Are Little Changed in Quiet Session as Now-Ritual Wait for Jobs Data Is Re-enacted
NEW YORK -- Bond prices were little changed in mostly torpid trading as investors began their monthly ritual of waiting for the employment report.</br></br>For bond investors, the Department of Labor's monthly report has become the most anxiously awaited of all government economic indicators. It has the ability to sway sentiment and move the markets, which explains why some investors shy away from the market in the days before its release. The June employment report will be released on Friday.</br></br>The approaching July Fourth holiday, which falls in the middle of the week, also kept many investors away.</br></br>"We're really playing with a half-staff on Wall Street," said Brian J. Fabbri, chief economist and managing director at Midland Montagu Securities Inc. "The first half of the week will be treated as if it is an extended holiday." He said that traders, investors and investment advisers will likely return on Friday, in time for the release of the June employment report.</br></br>In the municipal market, traders kept close watch on bonds issued by the city of Philadelphia. On Friday, Moody's Investors Service Inc. downgraded about $1.35 billion of the city's outstanding general obligation bonds to Ba from Baa, citing a burgeoning budget deficit and continued uncertainties surrounding the development of recurring funding sources.