Muni investors will have to save their appetites for the Thanksgiving Day feast, as volume in the primary market will be unusually thin in the holiday shortened week.
Long-term issuance is forecast to drop to $538.2 billion before the market closes for the holiday and Black Friday, according toIpreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.That compares with $6.19 billion of issuance last week, as reported by Thomson Reuters.
South Carolina will issue the largest deal of an estimated $405.2 million in competitive sales planned for the week. That compares with a revised $1.11 billion that was priced last week, according to Thomson.
The sale of S.C. general obligation bonds is slated for Tuesday. The deal is comprised of $131.40 million in Series A, which includes $85 million of economic development bonds, $26.5 million of state highway refunding bonds, $16.5 million state research university infrastructure bonds, and $3.4 million of state institution bonds on behalf of Winthrop University.
Series B totals $15 million of state institution bonds on behalf of Lander University.
In the negotiated market, issuance will decline to $133.0 million -- a stark contrast to last week when $5.08 billion came to market, led by the sale of $1.8 billion Jefferson County, Ala., sewer warrants after a three-day retail order period.
Domestic high-yield mutual funds, hedge funds, and sophisticated retail buyers as well as international investors devoured the yields offered in the county's bankruptcy exit plan that ranged between 5% and 7% and came close to and sometimes exceeded 100 basis points higher than the benchmark, triple-A GO scale at the time of the pricing, according to Municipal Market Data.
Retail investors purchased $40 million to $50 million of the bonds in the first day of the order period.
On Friday, the scale in 2043 ended at a 4.14%, according to MMD.
Upon returning from the holiday hiatus, investors can expect volume to somewhat improve.
In competitive market, Philadelphia plans to sell $100 million of GO debt on Dec. 3, while the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to sell two series of revenue bonds totaling $320.45 million and $134.52 million on Dec. 4.
