Top-quality municipal bonds finished weaker on Monday, according to traders, as the market prepared for more than $9 billion of new supply this week.
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation on Monday rose three basis points to 2.40% from 2.37% on Friday, while the yield on the 30-year increased three basis points to 3.13% from 3.10%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasuries were stronger on Monday. The yield on the two-year dipped to 1.11% from 1.12% on Friday, the 10-year Treasury dropped to 2.32% from 2.35%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.98% from 3.00%.
"Customer selling pressure has caused munis to diverge from Treasuries," MMD Senior Market Analyst Randy Smolik wrote in a Monday market comment, who added that munis took a hit after substantial bond fund outflows. "Treasuries continued to trade well on month-end buying extension and concerns over this weekend's Italian political referendum," he wrote.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 103.5% on Monday compared with 100.7% on Friday while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 104.9% versus 102.6%, according to MMD.
Prior Week's Actively Traded Issues
Revenue bonds comprised 59.78% of new issuance in the week ended Nov. 25, up from 59.44% in the previous week,
Primary Market
Market participants were back at work after the long Thanksgiving weekend and keeping an eye on rising muni yields.
Volume for the week is estimated at $9.1 billion, comprised of $6.72 billion of negotiated deals and $2.38 billion of competitive sales.
While there were no large deals pricing Monday, action will heat up on Tuesday with a variety of new offerings.
Raymond James is scheduled to price the New York City Municipal Water Authority's $400 million of water and sewer system second general resolution revenue bonds on Tuesday.
The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service and AA-plus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
Wells Fargo is expected to price the Board of Regents of the University of Texas' $300 million of system revenue financing system bonds on Tuesday.
The deal is rated triple-A by Moody's, S&P and Fitch.
In the competitive arena on Tuesday, the city and county of San Francisco's Public Utility Commission will be selling $256.49 million of Series 2016C taxable water revenue green bonds.
The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody's and AA-minus by S&P.
Also on Tuesday, Orange County, Fla., is competitively selling two separate issues totaling $296.57 million.
The offerings consist of $206.74 million of Series 2016B tourist development tax refunding revenue bonds and $89.83 million of Series 2016A tourist development tax refunding revenue bonds.
Both sales are rated Aa3 by Moody's, AA-minus by S&P and AA by Fitch.
Lipper: Muni Bond Funds See Outflows
Municipal bond funds again reported outflows as investors pulled cash out of the market, according to Lipper data released late Thursday.
The weekly reporters saw $2.232 billion of outflows in the week ended Nov. 23, after outflows of $3.012 billion in the previous week.
The four-week moving average declined to negative $1.376 billion after being in the red at negative $734.368 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 experienced outflows, losing $1.467 billion in the latest week after outflows of $2.585 billion in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had outflows of $500.210 million after outflows of $332.967 million in the prior week.
National funds had outflows of $1.849 billion after outflows of $2.685 billion in the previous week. High-yield muni funds reported outflows of $929.623 million in the latest reporting week, after outflows of $1.585 billion the previous week.
Exchange traded funds saw outflows of $77.721 million, after outflows of $212.832 million in the previous week.
Tax-Exempt Money Market Fund Inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $447.0 million, bringing total net assets to $130.04 billion in the week ended Nov. 21, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an inflow of $303.1 million to $129.59 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 237 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds rose to 0.16% from 0.15% in the previous week.
The total net assets of the 867 weekly reporting taxable money funds increased $23.02 billion to $2.547 trillion in the week ended Nov. 22, after an inflow of $6.51 billion to $2.524 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds was unchanged from 0.15% in the previous week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,104 weekly reporting money funds rose $23.46 billion to $2.677 trillion in the week ended Nov. 22 after inflows of $6.81 billion to $2.654 trillion in the prior week.
