Municipal bonds traders had barely enough time to digest their turkey leftovers before a new bounty of bonds is being put on their plates.
This week's $6.72 billion new issue calendar consists of $4.63 billion of negotiated deals and $2.09 billion of competitive sales.
RBC Capital Markets is set to kick of the week's action on Tuesday when it prices the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's $302 million of Series 2015B turnpike revenue bonds. The deal is rated A1 by Moody's Investors Service and A-plus by Fitch Ratings.
Topping the negotiated slate is the Kansas Department of Transportation's $400 million of Series 2015B highway revenue bonds scheduled to be priced by Morgan Stanley on Wednesday. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's, triple-A by Standard & Poor's and AA-plus by Fitch.
Morgan Stanley is also expected to price the Regents of the University of Michigan's $312 million of Series 2015 revenue bonds on Wednesday. The issue is rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is set to price the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York's $292 million of Series 2015B dormitory facilities revenue bonds for retail investors on Tuesday ahead of the institutional pricing on Wednesday. The DASNY bond are rated Aa3 by Moody's and A-plus by Fitch.
Leading the competitive pack are two separate sales of general obligation bonds from Massachusetts totaling $550 million. On Tuesday, the Bay State will sell $400 million of consolidated loan of 2015 Series E and $150 million of consolidated loan of 2015 Series D bonds. Both issues are rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.
On tap for Wednesday, the Maryland Department of Transportation will competitively sell $325 million of Series 2015, Third Issue, consolidated transportation bonds. The issue is rated Aa1 by Moody's, triple-A by S&P and AA-plus by Fitch.
In the short-term competitive arena, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Agency's $700 million of bond anticipation notes in six separate sales of $12 million each and one sale of $628 million on Wednesday. The BANs are rated MIG-1 by Moody's, SP-1-plus by S&P and F-1 by Fitch.
The District of Columbia will competitively sell $250 million of fiscal year 2016 GO tax revenue anticipation notes on Wednesday. The TRANs are rated MIG-1 by Moody's, SP-1-plus by S&P and F-1-plus by Fitch.
Secondary Market
Treasury yields were little changed on Monday. The two-year Treasury yield rose to 0.94% from 0.92% on Friday while the 10-year Treasury yield was unchanged from 2.22% and the 30-year yield was flat from 3.00%.
Municipals closed steady on Friday after putting in a strong performance on Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation closed flat at 2.03%, while the 30-year yield was unchanged at 2.97%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated on Friday at 91.2% from 91.0% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 99.0% compared to 99.2%, according to MMD.
Most Actively Traded Issues
Revenue bonds comprised 55.47% of new issuance in the week ended Nov. 27, down from 56.34% in the previous week, according to Markit. General obligation bonds comprised 37.38% of total issuance, up from 35.50%, while taxable bonds made up 7.15%, down from 8.16%.
Some of the most actively traded issues in the week ended Nov. 27 were in New York, Connecticut and California.
In the revenue bond sector, the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority 5s of 2046 were traded 79 times. In the GO bond sector, the Connecticut 3 1/4s of 2029 were traded 35 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the City of Industry, Calif.'s 5 1/8s of 2051 were traded 85 times, Markit said.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar rose $346.2 million to $10.59 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $4.30 billion competitive sales and $6.29 billion of negotiated deals.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 6,429 trades on Friday on volume of $799 million. The MSRB reported 22,949 trades on Wednesday on volume of $4.12 million.
Municipal Bond Funds See Inflows for 8th Straight Week
Municipal bond funds reported inflows for the eighth week in a row, according to Lipper data released on Friday.
Weekly reporting funds experienced $684.298 million of inflows in the week ended Nov. 25, after inflows of $384.566 million in the previous week, Lipper said.
The latest inflow brings to 27 out of 48 weeks this year that the funds have seen cash flowing in. Flows for the year to date remain positive, totaling over $3.5 billion.
The four-week moving average remained positive at $365.340 million after being in the green at $281.524 million in the previous week. A moving average is an analytical tool used to smooth out price changes by filtering out fluctuations.
Long-term muni bond funds also experienced inflows, gaining $582.103 million in the latest week, on top of inflows of $345.209 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had inflows of $149.157 million after inflows of $47.681 million in the prior week.
National funds saw inflows of $588.182 million after inflows of $363.092 million in the prior week. High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $256.845 million in the latest reporting week, after an inflow of $127.042 million the previous week.
Exchange traded funds saw inflows of $108.446 million, after inflows of $121.760 million in the previous week.
Tax-Exempt Money Market Funds Post Outflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced outflows of $114.4 million, bringing total net assets to $245.79 billion in the period ended Nov. 24, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an inflow of $235.9 million to $245.79 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 373 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds remained at 0.01% for the 134th straight week.
The total net assets of the 954 weekly reporting taxable money funds rose $2.26 billion to $2.506 trillion in the period ended Nov. 24, after an inflow of $2.63 billion to $2.504 trillion the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds remained at 0.02% for the 45th week in a row.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,327 weekly reporting money funds increased $2.15 billion to $2.752 trillion in the period ended Nov. 24, which followed an inflow of $2.86 billion to $2.750 trillion the week before.
