Market Post: Winding Down the Calendar

The municipal bond market on Wednesday is looking at the last of the week's big deals after seeing the bulk of the week's new issuance price on Tuesday. Prices of high-quality municipal bonds firmed on Tuesday.

Primary Market

In the competitive arena on Wednesday, Massachusetts has scheduled $205.235 million of SIFMA-indexed general obligation refunding bonds in two separate sales of $33.435 million Series D and $171.8 million Series E bonds.

On Tuesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the New York State Dormitory Authority's $494.805 million tax-exempt and taxable personal income tax revenue bond deal for institutions after a retail order period on Monday.

Siebert Brandford Shank priced the $229 million Los Angeles Department of Water and Power revenue bonds.

Citigroup Global Markets priced the Arizona Transportation Board's $376.2 million highway revenue refunding bonds.

Morgan Stanley priced the Arizona Health Facilities Authority's $304.325 million revenue bonds for the Scottsdale Lincoln Hospitals.

Secondary Market

Treasury prices were mixed on Wednesday, with the two-year note yield rising to 0.56% from 0.47% on Tuesday. The 10-year yield slipped to 2.07% from 2.08% while the 30-year fell to 2.73% from 2.95% on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, high-grade municipal bond prices firmed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year general obligation fell three basis points to 1.96% from 1.99% on Monday while the yield on 30-year GOs also dropped three basis points to 2.86% from 2.89% on Monday, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

On Tuesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 94.9% versus 94.1% on Monday; the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio was at 106.0%, compared with 105.3% on Monday.

MSRB: Previous Session's Activity

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 39,555 trades on Tuesday on volume of $9.593 billion.

Most active on Tuesday, based on the number of trades, were the California Statewide Community Development Authority's Loma Linda University Medical Center Series A revenue 5 1/4s of 2044, which traded 95 times with an average price of 109.58 and an average yield of 4.069%.

The second most active were the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority transportation program bonds, Series AA 4 1/4s of 2044, which traded 94 times with an average price of 100.721 and an average yield of 4.147%.

Aaron Weitzman contributed to this report.

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