Energy NW deal tops $4.9B muni bond slate

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The municipal bond market will see another light new issue calendar next week.

Ipreo estimates weekly volume at $4.86 billion, up from a revised total of $2.98 billion in the prior week, according to updated data from Thomson Reuters. Average weekly volume in 2017 has been about $4.5 billion, off sharply from 2017’s average of over $6 billion a week.

Next week’s calendar is composed of $3.19 billion of negotiated deals and $1.67 billion of competitive sales.

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Primary market
Topping next week’s slate is a $635 million tax-exempt and taxable deal from Energy Northwest. JPMorgan Securities is expected to price the Series 2018C tax-exempt and Series 2018D taxable electric revenue refunding bonds on Wednesday.

The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, AA-minus by S&P Global Ratings and AA by Fitch Ratings.

The Dormitory Authority of New York is back in the market. Raymond James & Associates is set to price DASNY’s $591 million of Series 2018 A, B, C, D and E school districts financing program revenue bonds on Tuesday.

The Series A and E bonds are rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA-minus by Fitch; the Series B bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA-minus by Fitch; the Series C bonds are rated AA by S&P and AA-minus by Fitch; and the Series D bonds are rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-minus by Fitch.

In the competitive arena, the City and County of San Francisco is selling $382.04 million of general obligation bonds in three sales on Tuesday.

The deals consist of $189.735 million of Series 2018C 2014 earthquake safety and emergency response GOs; $142.23 million of Series 2018D taxable 2015 affordable housing GOs; and $50.075 million of Series 2018E 2016 public health and safety GOs .

The deals are rated Aaa by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.

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 two basis points in the one- to 30-year maturities. High-grade munis were also stronger with yields calculated on MBIS’ AAA scale falling by as much as two basis points all across the curve.

Municipals were also stronger according to Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale, which showed yields falling one to three basis points in the 10-year general obligation muni and dropping two to four basis points in the 30-year muni maturity.

Treasury bonds were slightly stronger too as stocks rose.

On Thursday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 83.3% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 96.2%, according to MMD.

Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $13.08B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $2.04 billion to $13.08 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $5.74 billion of competitive sales and $7.33 billion of negotiated deals.

Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 42,093 trades on Thursday on volume of $13.77 billion.

New York, California and Texas were the states with the most trades, with the Empire State taking 16.847% of the market, the Golden State taking 16.366% and the Lone Star State taking 10.3%

Week's actively traded issues
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week ended May 4 were from Nevada, New York and Illinois issuers, according to Markit.

In the GO bond sector, the Clark County, Nev., 5s of 2048 traded 27 times. In the revenue bond sector, the DASNY 5s of 2048 traded 39 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Illinois 5.877s of 2019 traded 13 times.

Week's actively quoted issues
Illinois, New York and Puerto Rico names were among the most actively quoted bonds in the week ended May 4, according to Markit.

On the bid side, the Bollingbrook, Ill., taxable 4.94s of 2021 were quoted by 363 unique dealers. On the ask side, the New York MTA revenue 5s of 2024 were quoted by 196 dealers. And among two-sided quotes, the Puerto Rico Commonwealth GO 8s of 2035 were quoted by 30 dealers.

Lipper: Muni bond funds saw outflows
Investors in municipal bond funds reversed course and pulled cash out of the funds in the latest reporting week, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.

The weekly reporters saw $344.710 million of outflows in the week ended May 2, after inflows of $229.481 million in the previous week.

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Exchange traded funds reported inflows of $10.102 million, after outflows of $12.637 million in the previous week. Ex-ETFs, muni funds saw $364.813 million of outflows, after inflows of $242.118 million in the previous week.

The four-week moving average remained negative at -$218.779 million, after being in the red at -$194.379 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 outflows of $183.551 million in the latest week after inflows of $88.923 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had outflows of $43.953 million after inflows of $67.332 million in the prior week.

National funds had outflows of $206.274 million after inflows of $257.056 million in the previous week. High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $28.680 million in the latest week, after inflows of $177.482 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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Primary bond market Secondary bond market Municipal bond funds State of California State of New York New York State Dormitory Authority Metropolitan Transportation Authority Commonwealth of Puerto Rico State of Illinois
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