Calif. Regents, W.Va. deals price

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Action in the municipal bond market got underway on Monday as two big deals hit the screens in early activity.

Primary market
The Regents of the University of California is bringing four sales to market this week totaling $2.06 billion.

On Monday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the $945.62 million of Series 2018AZ general revenue bonds for retail investors ahead of the institutional pricing on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, BAML will price the $739 million of Series 20180 limited project revenue bonds after a one-day retail order period.

On Wednesday, BAML is expected to price the Cal Regents’ $283 million of Series 2018BA taxable general revenue bonds on and $95 million of Series 2018P taxable limited project revenue bonds.

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 and Series P taxables are rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA-minus by S&P and Fitch.

West Virginia is coming to market this week with about $740 million in two deals, one negotiated and one competitive.

On Monday, BAML priced the state’s $254 million of Series 2018A general obligation state road bonds for retail investors.

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.

Monday’s bond sales
California:
Click here for the Regents’ $945M deal

West Virginia:
Click here for the state sale

Prior week's top underwriters
The top municipal bond underwriters of last week included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Securities, Goldman Sachs and RBC Capital Markets, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In the week of May 13 to May 19, BAML underwrote $3.1 billion, Morgan Stanley $1.1 billion, JPMorgan $872.6 million, Goldman Sachs $863.5 million and RBC $572.3 million.

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Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $9.73B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $407.6 billion to $9.73 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $3.94 billion of competitive sales and $5.79 billion of negotiated deals.

Secondary market
Municipal bonds were mixed on Monday, according to a midday read of the MBIS benchmark scale.

Benchmark muni yields fell less than a basis point in the one- to 15-year maturities and rose less than one basis point in the 16- to 30-year maturities.

High-grade munis were also mixed, with yields calculated on MBIS’ AAA scale rising less than a basis point in the one-year and 14-to 16-year maturities, falling less than a basis point in the three- to 12-year and 22- to 27-year maturities and remaining unchanged in the two-year, 13-year, 17- to 19-year and 28- to 30-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 weaker as stocks were trading higher.

On Friday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 83.3% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 95.9%, according to MMD. The muni-to-Treasury ratio compares the yield of tax-exempt municipal bonds with the yield of taxable U.S. Treasuries with comparable maturities. If the muni/Treasury ratio is above 100%, munis are yielding more than Treasuries; if it is below 100%, munis are yielding less.

Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 34,491 trades on Friday on volume of $9.71 billion.

Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 55.84% of new issuance in the week ended May 18, down from 56.11% in the previous week, according to Markit. General obligation bonds made up 38.22% of total issuance, up from 38.12%, while taxable bonds accounted for 5.94%, up from 5.77% a week earlier.

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Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week were from Puerto Rico and Texas issuers.

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.

Treasury to sell $45B 4-week bills
The Treasury Department said it will sell $45 billion of four-week discount bills Tuesday. There are currently $110 billion of four-week bills outstanding.

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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