The primary market wound down as the last large deals of the week priced, led by well-known issuers from California and Massachusetts.
Top-shelf municipal bonds were weaker on Thursday, as yields were as many as two basis points higher in some maturities, according to traders.
Primary market
Jefferies priced and repriced for institutions the biggest deal of the week -- the Regents of the University of California’s $1.1 billion sale.
The $449.675 million of Series Av general revenue bonds were repriced to yield from 0.79% with a 3% coupon in 2018 to 3.53% with a 3.50% coupon and 3.12% with a 5% coupon in a split 2037 maturity. A term bond in 2042 was priced as 5s to yield 3.22% and as 5 1/4s to yield 3.12% in a split maturity. A 2047 term bond was priced as 5s to yield 3.27% and as 5 1/4s to yield 3.17% in a split maturity. A term bond in 2049 was priced to as 5s to yield 3.32%.
The $185.91 million of Series AW taxable bonds were priced about 30 basis points above the comparable Treasury with a 1.25% coupon in 2019 to about 135 basis points above the comparable Treasury with a 2.25% coupon. A term bond in 2037 was priced about 85 basis points above the comparable Treasury with a 2.975% coupon and a term bond in 2047 was about 110 basis points above the comparable Treasury with a 2.875% coupon. No other pricing information was available.
Pricing information wasn't available on roughly $500 million of Series AX taxable of fixed-rate notes. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
Since 2007, the school has sold $22.34 billion of securities with the largest issuance occurring in 2013 when it sold $4.70 billion. The regents have sold less than $1 billion twice during that time period, in 2014, and in 2008 when it sold just $572 million.
Barclays Capital priced the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s $324.63 million of Series 2017B general revenue bonds and Series 2017C general revenue refunding green bonds for institutions. The $68.710 million of Series B bonds were priced to yield from 0.87% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 1.00% with a 5% coupon in 2019. The bonds were also priced to yield 1.24% with a 5% coupon in 2023 to 3.13% with a 5% coupon in 2040. A term bond in 2042 was priced to yield 3.16 with a 5% coupon.
The $255.92 million of Series C bonds were priced to yield 0.87% with a 5% coupon in 2018 and priced to yield from 1.19% with a 4% coupon in 2020 to 2.80% with a 5% coupon in 2032. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.
JPMorgan priced New Mexico Hospital Equipment Loan Council’s $239.38 million of Series 2017 A&B hospital system revenue bonds for Presbyterian Healthcare Services. The bonds were priced to yield from 1.02% with a 2% coupon in 2018 to 3.94% with a 4% coupon in 2037. A term bond in 2039 was priced at par yield 4%. A term bond in 2046 was priced to yield 4.03% with a 4% coupon and 3.63% with a 5% coupon in a split maturity. The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA by S&P and Fitch.
In the competitive arena, Milwaukee sold $132.23 million of Series 2017N4 GO promissory notes and GO corporate purpose bonds to Wells Fargo with a true interest cost of 2.13%. The bonds were priced to yield from 0.88% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 3.125% at par in 2034. The deal is rated AA by S&P and Fitch.
Secondary market
On Thursday, the yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was two basis points higher to 2.17% from 2.15% on Wednesday, while the 30-year GO yield increased one basis point to 3.03% from 3.02%, according to a final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
U.S. Treasuries were also weaker on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.31% from 1.29% on Wednesday, while the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.35% from 2.31%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 3.00% from 2.95%.
On Thursday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 92.3%, compared with 93.1% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 101.1%, versus 102.2%, according to MMD.
Tax-exempt money market fund inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $62.3 million, bringing total net assets to $128.56 billion in the week ended May 1, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an outflow of $651.5 million to $128.50 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 232 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds decreased to 0.41% from 0.42% from the previous week.
The total net assets of the 857 weekly reporting taxable money funds increased $9.50 billion to $2.496 trillion in the week ended May 2, after an inflow of $10.51 billion to $2.486 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds increased to 0.43% from 0.42% in the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,089 weekly reporting money funds increased $9.26 billion to $2.624 trillion in the week ended May 2, after inflows of $9.85 billion to $2.615 trillion in the prior week.
