The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority sold a $478.18 million competitive deal to Bank of America Merrill Lynch as bond yields moved higher on Thursday.
Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale is mixed in midday trading.
The 10-year muni benchmark yield fell to 2.326% on Thursday from the final read of 2.337% on Wednesday, according to
The MBIS benchmark index is updated hourly on the
Top-rated municipal bonds are weaker at mid-session. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose as much as two basis points from 2.10% on Tuesday, while the 30-year GO yield gained as much as two basis points from 2.69%, according to a read of MMD’s triple-A scale.
U.S. Treasuries are weaker in midday activity. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 2.06% on Thursday from 2.05% on Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.60% from 2.58% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury increased to 2.88% from 2.85%.
On Wednesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 78.0% compared with 82.6% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 92.6% versus 94.9%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 45,769 trades on Wednesday on volume of $11.54 billion.
Primary market
In the competitive arena, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority sold $478.18 million of mandatory tender bonds in two separate sales.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch won the $279.4 million of Series 2018A-2 transportation revenue bonds with a true interest cost of 1.9074%. The bonds were priced as 5s to yield 1.88% in 2048 with a mandatory tender date of 2022.
BAML also won the $198.78 million of Subseries 2018A-1 transportation revenue bonds with a TIC of 1.7972%. The bonds were priced as 5s to yield 1.75% in 2045 with a mandatory tender date of 2020.
The deals are rated A1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-minus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
The Prior Lake Independent School District No. 719, Minn., sold $125 million of GOs in two separate sales.
Morgan Stanley won the $65 million of Series 2018A GO school building bonds with a TIC of 3.1758% and Wells Fargo Securities won the $60 million of Series 2018B GO school building capital appreciation bonds with a TIC of 2.7620%.
The deals are backed by the Minnesota School District Credit Enhancement Program.
Stifel is expected to price the Denver Public Schools, Colo.’s $211.995 million of Series 2018A general obligation bonds and Series 2018B taxable GOs.
The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.
Loop Capital Markets is set to price Cook County, Ill.’s $103.15 million of Series 2018 GO refunding bonds.
The deal is rated A2 by Moody’s, AA-minus by S&P and A-plus by Fitch.
Since 2008, Cook County has sold about $3.27 billion of bonds, with the most issuance occurring in 2010 when it sold $810 million. The county did not come to market at all in 2015.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $7.18B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $545.9 million to $7.18 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $2.66 billion of competitive sales and $4.51 billion of negotiated deals.
Tax-exempt money market funds saw inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $719.3 million, bringing total net assets to $136.12 billion in the week ended Jan. 15, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.
This followed an inflow of $4.34 billion to $135.40 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 198 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds fell to 0.86% from 0.96% the previous week.
The total net assets of the 832 weekly reporting taxable money funds decreased $29.01 billion to $2.639 trillion in the week ended Jan. 22, after an outflow of $7.07 billion to $2.668 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds increased to 0.94% from 0.93% from the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,030 weekly reporting money funds decreased $28.29 billion to $2.775 trillion in the week ended Jan. 22, after outflows of $2.73 billion to $2.803 trillion in the prior week.
Treasury announces auction details
The Treasury Department announced these auctions:
- $48 billion 91-day bills on Jan. 22;
- $42 billion 182-day bills on Jan. 22;
- $26 billion two-year notes on Jan. 23;
- $34 billion five-year notes on Jan. 24;
- $15 billion two-year floating rate notes on Jan. 24; and
- $28 billion seven-year notes on Jan. 25.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.