Calif. Regents, W.Va. deals head $6.4B new issue muni bond calendar

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Municipal bond volume slips back down to a more average level next week, after the market saw the biggest slate of the year hit the screens this week.

Ipreo estimates next week’s supply at $6.36 billion, which is down from a revised total of $9.02 billion this week, according to updated data from Thomson Reuters. Next week’s calendar is composed of $4.85 billion of negotiated deals and $1.51 billion of competitive sales.

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Primary market
The Regents of the University of California is bringing three sales to market totaling $1.97 billion.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is set to price the $946 million of Series 2018AZ general revenue bonds on Tuesday after a one-day order period and price the $739 million of Series 20180 limited project revenue bonds on Wednesday after a one-day retail order period. BAML is expected to price the Cal Regents’ $283 million of Series 2018BA taxable general revenue bonds on Wednesday.

The Series AZ bonds and Series BA taxables are rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings while the Series 0 bonds are rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA-minus by S&P and Fitch.

West Virginia is coming to market with $800.21 in two deals, one negotiated and one competitive.

BAML is set to price the state’s $312 million of Series 2018A general obligation state road bonds on Monday.

On Wednesday, the state will competitively sell $488.21 million of Series 2018B GO state road bonds.

The deals are rated Aa2 by Moody’s, AA-minus by S&P and AA by Fitch.

Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $9.32B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $601.6 billion to $9.32 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $3.73 billion of competitive sales and $5.59 billion of negotiated deals.

Secondary market
Municipal bonds were little change on Friday, according to a midday read of the MBIS benchmark scale.

Benchmark muni yields rose as much as one basis point in the one- to 30-year maturities. High-grade munis were little changed with yields calculated on MBIS’ AAA scale rising less than a basis point in the nine- to 30-year maturities, falling less than a basis point in the four- to eight-year maturities and remaining unchanged in the one- to three-year maturities.

Municipals were unchanged according to Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale, which showed yields steady in the 10-year general obligation muni and flat in the 30-year muni maturity.

Treasury bonds were slightly stronger as stocks were trading mixed.

On Thursday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 81.5% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 94.6%, according to MMD.

Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 40,583 trades on Thursday on volume of $14.02 billion.

Week's actively traded issues
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week ended May 18 were from Puerto Rico and Texas issuers, according to Markit.

In the GO bond sector, the Puerto Rico Commonwealth 8s of 2035 traded 64 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Grand Parkway Transportation Corp. in Texas 5s of 2048 traded 45 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp. 6.05s of 2036 traded 22 times.

Week's actively quoted issues
Puerto Rico, New York and California names were among the most actively quoted bonds in the week ended May 18, according to Markit.

On the bid side, the Puerto Rico COFINA taxable 6.05s of 2036 were quoted by 61 unique dealers. On the ask side, the DASNY revenue 5s of 2029 were quoted by 140 dealers. And among two-sided quotes, the California taxable 7.55s of 2039 were quoted by 22 dealers.

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

The weekly reporters saw $206.948 million of inflows in the week ended May 16, after inflows of $167.323 million in the previous week.

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Exchange traded funds reported outflows of $110.620 million, after inflows of $24.407 million in the previous week. Ex-ETFs, muni funds saw $317.568 million of inflows, after inflows of $142.915 million in the previous week.

The four-week moving average turned positive at $64.760 million, after being in the red at -$115.765 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 $264.239 million in the latest week after inflows of $252.252 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had inflows of $10.742 million after inflows of $68.529 million in the prior week.

National funds had inflows of $240.367 million after inflows of $200.965 million in the previous week. High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $415.493 million in the latest week, after inflows of $220.975 million the previous week.

ICI: Long-term muni funds see $352M outflow
Long-term municipal bond funds saw an outflow of $352 million in the week ended May 9, the Investment Company Institute reported on Thursday.

This followed an outflow of $163 million out of the tax-exempt mutual funds in the week ended May 2 and outflows of $96 million, $830 million, $696 million and $110 million in the four prior weeks.

Taxable bond funds saw an estimated inflow of $2.38 billion in the latest reporting week, after seeing an inflow of $3.64 billion in the previous week.

ICI said the total estimated inflows to long-term mutual funds and exchange-traded funds were $4.22 billion for the week ended May 9 after inflows of $45 million in the prior 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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Primary bond market Higher education bonds Secondary bond market Municipal bond funds State of California State of Texas State of New York Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp (COFINA) New York State Dormitory Authority Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
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