Municipal bond sales are set to pick up this week following an unusually light slate of offerings last week.
Following a week in which issuers floated just $2.62 billion in paper according to Thomson Reuters, municipal bonds expected to be sold this week total $6.66 billion, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.
The average visible supply - or the face value of bonds scheduled for sale in the next 30 days - last week was just $10.3 billion. The average visible supply since the beginning of last year is about $13.7 billion.
Competitive offerings in particular are scheduled to accelerate, with $1.57 billion in competitive deals compared with $274.9 million last week.
The state of Washington will lead the new-issue competitive calendar this week with a $765 million trio of general obligation bonds.
The Evergreen State is selling $401.4 million of motor vehicle fuel-tax GOs, with maturities starting in 2010 and running through 2034.
The state is rated Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service, AA-plus by Standard & Poor's, and AA by Fitch Ratings.
The state is also selling $298.8 million of various-purpose GO bonds, and $64.9 million of taxable GOs.
The various-purpose bonds' maturities range from 2017 to 2034. The taxable bonds mature between 2010 and 2016.
The state expects to collect bids on the bonds tomorrow morning.
Seattle-Northwest Securities is financial adviser.
The biggest offering in the negotiated calendar is Iowa's I-JOBS Program special obligation bonds, Series 2009A and B, $602.4 million of taxable Build America Bonds.
I-JOBS is a three-year, $830 million program designed to improve public facilities and invest in infrastructure.
The issue is rated A3 by Moody's and AA by Standard & Poor's.
Barclays Capital is lead manager, with Public Financial Management acting as financial adviser.
The next-biggest bond deal on tap is a $477.8 million airport system revenue transaction from Sacramento County.
JPMorgan is underwriter and First Southwest is financial adviser.
The bonds are rated A-plus by Standard and Poor's.
Another major issue this week comes from the University of Missouri Curators, which is selling a pair of taxable bonds: $350 million of Build America Bond revenue bonds, underwritten by JPMorgan, and $75 million of system facilities revenue bonds, underwritten by JPMorgan with Commerce Bank of St. Louis as financial adviser.
The pickup in issuance comes as the high-quality bond markets continue to strengthen.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has plunged 65 basis points in the past month. The 10-year triple-A GO yield has partially followed, clipping 25 basis points of the yield on the Municipal Market Data yield curve scale in the past month.
