Muni Market Preps for $4.5B Week

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After yields dropped on the long end the last three days of last week, municipal market participants have started to eye the upcoming light $4.5 billion calendar.

Secondary Market

U.S. Treasuries were little changed on Monday. The yield on the two-year fell to 1.31% from 1.32% on Friday, while the 10-year Treasury yield was unchanged from 2.50%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was flat from 3.11%.

Top-shelf municipal bonds ended stronger on Friday. The 10-year benchmark muni general obligation yield fell two basis points to 2.40% from 2.42% on Thursday, while the yield on the 30-year GO decreased two basis points to 3.18% from 3.20%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

On Friday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 96.0%, compared with 95.8% on Thursday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 102.2%, versus 101.9%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous Session's Activity

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 34,961 trades on Friday on volume of $10.08 billion.

Previous Week's Top Underwriters

The top negotiated and competitive underwriters of last week included JPMorgan Securities, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, Citigroup and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In the week of March 12 to March 18, JPMorgan underwrote $1.36 billion, Morgan Stanley $1.04 billion, RBC $707.6 million, Citi $597.3 million and BAML $434.2 million.

Prior Week's Actively Traded Issues

Revenue bonds comprised 58.69% of new issuance in the week ended March 17, up from 58.46% in the previous week, according to Markit. General obligation bonds comprised 35.64% of total issuance, down from 35.77%, while taxable bonds made up 5.67%, down from 5.77%.

Some of the most actively traded issues by type were from California, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico. In the GO bond sector, the Los Angeles, Calif., 3s of 2042 were traded 42 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority 4s of 2039 were traded 82 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico 6.15s of 2038 were traded 16 times.

Primary Market

This week's supply is estimated at $4.5 billion, comprised of $2.94 billion of negotiated deals and $1.56 billion of competitive sales.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is scheduled to price the New York State Environmental Facilities Corp.'s $594 million of state clean water and drinking water revolving fund revenue bonds for the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority.

The Series 2017A and second resolution subordinated Series 2017F bonds are set to sell on Tuesday.

The deal is rated triple-A by Moody's Investors Service, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

Goldman Sachs is scheduled to price Dutchess County Local Development Corp.'s $100.58 million of revenue refunding bonds for Vassar College on Tuesday.

The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody's and AA-minus by S&P.

In the competitive arena, the San Francisco Unified School District will sell two competitive deals totaling $239.9 million on Tuesday.

The offerings are composed of $180 million election of 2016 Series A general obligation bonds and $59.9 million of 2017 GO refunding bonds. Both deals are rated Aa2 by Moody's, AA-minus by S&P and triple-A by Fitch.

Bond Buyer Visible Supply

The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $1.32 billion to $10.07 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $4.04 billion of competitive sales and $6.03 billion of negotiated deals.

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