The municipal bond market is taking a day to digest this week's beefy new issue calendar, which was dominated by large healthcare deals.
Secondary Trading
U.S. Treasuries were narrowly mixed on Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury inched up to 0.80% from 0.79% on Thursday, while the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.85% from 1.83% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was unchanged from 2.70%.
Top-shelf municipal bonds finished stronger on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation fell three basis points to 1.62% from 1.65% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni yield dropped three basis points to 2.58% from 2.61%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 88.3% on Thursday compared with 88.5% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 95.9% versus 96.5%, according to MMD.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 37,021 trades on Thursday on volume of $12.35 billion.
Primary Market
Healthcare issues dominated the week's new issue calendar. Municipal bond traders sad all the healthcare deals met with good reception.
Morgan Stanley priced Ascension Health Alliance's $1.2 billion healthcare deal through four conduit issuers for the Ascension Senior Credit Group. The bonds were rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA-plus by Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the California Statewide Communities Development Authority's $947.62 million of Series 2016A revenue bonds for the Loma Linda University Medical Center. The bonds were rated BB by S&P and BB-plus by Fitch.
Barclays Capital Markets priced Scioto County, Ohio's $123.64 million of Series 2016 hospital facilities refunding revenue bonds for the Southern Ohio Medical Center. The bonds were rated A2 by Moody's.
JPMorgan Securities priced St. Cloud, Minn.'s $192.53 million of Series 2016A healthcare revenue bonds for the Centracare Health System. The issue was rated A1 by Moody's and A-plus by S&P.
Wells Fargo Securities priced the Colorado Health Facilities Authority's $114.59 million of Series 2016 hospital revenue bonds for the NCMC Inc. project. The deal was rated A-plus by S&P and Fitch.
Citigroup priced the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency's $221.07 million of Series 2016 I revenue bonds for CareGroup. The deal was rated A3 by Moody's and A-minus by S&P.
BAML priced the Harris County, Texas, Cultural Education Facilities Financing Corp.'s $139.92 million of Series 2016 medical facilities mortgage revenue refunding bonds for the Baylor College of Medicine. The deal was rated A by S&P.
Elsewhere, Citi priced the Texas Private Activity Bond Surface Transportation Corp.'s $271.3 million of tax-exempt senior lien revenue bonds for the Blueridge Transportation Group's SH 288 Toll Lanes Project. The deal was rated Baa3 by Moody's and BBB-minus by S&P.
Citi also priced the Mission Economic Development Corp., Texas' $202.89 million of Series 2016B senior lien revenue bonds for the Natgasoline project. The deal has a preliminary rating of BB-minus from S&P.
BAML priced the Public Power Generation Agency, Neb.'s $136 million of Series 2016A revenue refunding bonds for the Whelan Energy Center's Unit 2. The deal is rated A2 by Moody's and A-minus by Fitch.
JPMorgan priced the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority's $149 million of Series 2016B housing mortgage finance program bonds. The deal was rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P.
Piper Jaffray priced the Ohlone Community College District, Alameda County, Calif.'s $155 million Election of 2010 Series C GOs. The deal was rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by Fitch.
In the competitive arena, Miami-Dade County, Fla., sold $350 million of Series 2016A general obligation refunding bonds under the Building Better Communities Program.
Wells Fargo won the bonds with a true interest cost of 3.04%. The bonds were rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by S&P.
The Horry County School District, S.C., competitively sold $125 million of Series 2016 GOs. BAML won the deal with a TIC of 1.35%. The bonds were rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA by S&P.
Rhode Island sold a total of $125.81 million of tax-exempt and taxable consolidated capital development loan of 2016 general obligation bonds in two separate sales. Wells Fargo won the $112.64 million of tax-exempt Series A GOs and tax-exempt Series C refunding GOs with a true interest cost of 2.39%. JPMorgans won the $13.17 million of taxable Series B GOs with a TIC of 1.39%. Both sales were rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA by Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.
The Illinois Regional Transportation Authority competitively sold $150 million of Series 2016C taxable GO working cash notes. Wells Fargo won the notes with a TIC of 1.43%. The deal was rated AA by S&P and Fitch.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $2.85 billion to $13.15 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $5.55 billion of competitive sales and $7.60 billion of negotiated deals.
Muni Bond Funds See Inflows for 30th Straight Week
For the 30th week in a row, municipal bond funds reported inflows, according to Lipper data released Thursday. Weekly reporting funds saw $1.173 billion of inflows in the week ended April 27, after inflows of $555.910 million in the previous week, Lipper said.
The four-week moving average remained positive at $674.752 million after being in the green at $577.356 million in the previous week. A moving average is an analytical tool used to smooth out price changes by filtering out fluctuations.
