Cal tobaccos top $7B muni calendar

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Municipal bond buyers will see a moderately sized new issue calendar next week with a few big deals heading their way, topped by a big negotiated offering coming out of the Golden State and four large competitive sales from Georgia.

Ipreo estimates weekly volume at $7 billion, up from a revised total of $6.76 billion this week, according to updated data from Thomson Reuters. Next week’s calendar is composed of $4.77 billion of negotiated deals and $2.23 billion of competitive sales.

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Primary market
Leading off next week’s slate, Citigroup is set to price the Golden State Tobacco Securitization Corp.’s $1.7 billion of Series 2018A-1 tobacco settlement asset-backed bonds on Wednesday. The sale will refunding certain outstanding bonds of the corporation.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is set to price the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s $490 million of Series 2018A-2 turnpike revenue bonds.

The deal is rated A1 by Moody’s, A-plus by Fitch and AA-minus by Kroll Bond Ratings Agency.

In the competitive arena, Georgia is coming to market with about $1.23 billion of general obligation bonds in four sales on Tuesday.

The deals consist of $428.95 million of Series 2018A Tranche 2 GOs, $411.655 million of Series 2018A Tranche 1 GOs, $210.445 million of Series 2018B Tranche 1 taxable GOs and $178.65 million of Series 2018B Tranche 2 taxable GOs.

The deals are rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch. The financial advisor is Public Resources Advisory Group with Terminus Municipal Advisors; bond counsel is Gray Pannell.

In the short-term competitive sector, Idaho is selling $550 million of Series 2018 tax anticipation notes on Wednesday.

The deal is rated MIG1 by Moody’s, SP1-plus by S&P and F1-plus by Fitch. Piper Jaffray is financial advisor and MSBT Law is bond counsel.

Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $8.60B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $3.11 billion to $8.60 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $3.31 billion of competitive sales and $5.29 billion of negotiated deals.

Secondary market
Municipal bonds were stronger on Friday, according to a midday read of the MBIS benchmark scale. Benchmark muni yields fell as much as one basis point in the three- to 30-year maturities and rose less than a basis point in the one- and two-year maturities.

High-grade munis were stronger too, with yields calculated on MBIS’ AAA scale falling as much as two basis points in the three- to 30-year maturities and rising less than a basis point in the one- and two-year maturities.

Municipals were stronger on Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale, which showed yields falling as much as one basis point in the 10-year muni general obligation and dropping as much as two basis points in the 30-year muni maturity.

Treasury bonds were stronger as stock prices were lower.

On Thursday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 84.6% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 98.3%, according to MMD. The muni-to-Treasury ratio compares the yield of tax-exempt municipal bonds with the yield of taxable U.S. Treasury with comparable maturities. If the muni/Treasury ratio is above 100%, munis are yielding more than Treasury; if it is below 100%, munis are yielding less.

Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 37,851 trades on Thursday on volume of $13.18 billion.

California, New York and Texas were the states with the most trades, with the Golden State taking 16.044% of the market, the Empire State taking 13.77% and the Lone Star State taking 9.619%.

Week's actively traded issues
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week ended June 15 were from Puerto Rico and Nevada issuers, according to Markit.

In the GO bond sector, the Puerto Rico 8s of 2035 traded 55 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Reno, Nev. 4s of 2058 traded 45 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp.6.05s of 2036 traded 84 times

Week's actively quoted issues
Puerto Rico, Pennsylvania and New Jersey names were among the most actively quoted bonds in the week ended June 8, according to Markit.

On the bid side, the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp.’s taxable 6.05s of 2036 were quoted by 84 unique dealers. On the ask side, the Pennsylvania GO 4s of 2036 were quoted by 186 dealers. And among two-sided quotes, the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund 6.561s of 2040 were quoted by 18 dealers.

Lipper: Muni bond funds saw inflows
Investors in municipal bond funds showed confidence and once again put cash into the funds in the latest reporting week, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.

The weekly reporters saw $449.614 million of inflows in the week ended June 13, after inflows of $189.487 million in the previous week.

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Exchange traded funds reported inflows of $172.711 million, after inflows of $115.358 million in the previous week. Ex-ETFs, muni funds saw $276.903 million of inflows, after inflows of $74.129 million in the previous week.

The four-week moving average remained positive at $237.288 million, after being in the green at $176.621 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 had inflows of $394.458 million in the latest week after inflows of $113.984 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had inflows of $208.625 million after inflows of $153.045 million in the prior week.

National funds had inflows of $420.991 million after inflows of $183.181 million in the previous week. High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $322.355 million in the latest week, after inflows of $147.159 million the previous week.

Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation. Click here for a brief tour of the Workstation, or contact Vanessa Kim at 212-803-8474 for more information.

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