Municipal bond traders on Tuesday are waiting to see how wide the spreads will come in on the Sales Tax Securitization Corp.’s $666.2 million deals.
Goldman Sachs is set to price the Chicago corporation’s $366.2 million of tax-exempt bonds and $300 million of taxables after distributing a pre-marketing scale on Monday.
Underwriters reportedly offered spreads to the Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale of 55 basis points on serials ranging from 2031 to 2038.
The term bonds for $91.75 million in 2043 and $117 million in 2048 offered a spread of 60 basis points with a 5% coupon and a 95 basis point spread with a 4% coupon. The other spreads were based on 5% coupons.
Details on the $300 million taxables, which are due in 2048 with a make-whole call feature, were not available.
The deal is rated AA by S&P Global Ratings and AAA by Fitch Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency.
Also on Tuesday, Goldman will price for retail investors the state of Connecticut’s $800 million of Series 2018A special tax obligation bonds for transportation infrastructure purposes. The
Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s $781.66 million bond deal.
The $672.17 million of 207th Series of consolidated bonds subject to the alternative minimum tax were priced to yield from 1.93% with a 5% coupon in 2022 to 3.29% with a 4% coupon and 3.01% with a 5% coupon in a split 2035 maturity. A 2043 maturity was priced as 4s to yield 3.44% and a 2048 maturity was priced as 5s to yield 3.18%.
BAML took indications of interest on the $154.49 million of taxable 208th Series consolidated bonds. The issue was offered to yield from about 15 basis points above the comparable Treasury security in 2018 to about 45 basis points above the comparable Treasury security in 2022.
The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-minus by S&P and Fitch.
Since 2008, the PANYNJ has sold about $21.89 billion of bonds, with the most issuance occurring in 2012 when it sold $3.69 billion and the least amount in 2016 when it sold $1.10 billion.
Additionally, BAML priced for retail the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s $395 million of Series 2018A subordinated dedicated sales tax bonds.
The issue was priced for retail as 5s to yield from 1.45% in 2018 to 2.68% in 2038. A 2043 maturity was priced as 5s to yield 2.99% while a 2048 maturity was not offered to retail.
The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s, AA by S&P and AA-plus by Fitch.
And BAML priced for retail the city and county of Honolulu’s $304.785 million of wastewater system revenue bonds.
The $219.265 million of senior Series 2018A first bond resolution bonds were priced for retail to yield from 3.29% with a 3.25% coupon in 2035 to 3.28% with a 4% coupon in 2038. A split 2042 maturity was priced as 3 3/8s to yield 3.45% and while the second half was not offered to retail; a 2047 maturity was not offered to retail.
The $34.47 million of senior Series 2018B first bond resolution refunding bonds were priced for retail as 5s to yield from1.46% in 2018 to 2.21% in 2025.
The $42.015 million of junior Series 2018A taxable second bond resolution refunding bonds were priced for retail to yield from about 15 basis points above the comparable Treasury security in 2018 to about 45 basis points above the comparable Treasury security in 2023 and about 60 basis points above the comparable Treasury security in 2026.
The $9.035 million of junior Series 2018B second bond resolution refunding bonds were priced for retail as 4s to yield from 1.51% in 2018 to 2.14% in 2025.
The senior bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA by Fitch and the junior bonds are rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA-minus by Fitch.
The University of Washington competitively sold $135.99 million of Series 2018 general revenue bonds.
JPMorgan Securities won the deal with a true interest cost of 3.4797%. Pricing information was not immediately available.
The deal is rated Aaa by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $9.23B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $282.5 million to $9.23 billion on Tuesday. The total is comprised of $2.25 billion of competitive sales and $6.98 billion of negotiated deals.
Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale was mixed in midday trading.
The 10-year muni benchmark yield held at 2.390% on Tuesday from the final read of 2.390% on Monday, according to
The MBIS benchmark index is updated hourly on the
Top-rated municipal bonds were mixed at mid-session. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose as much as two basis points from 2.14% on Monday, while the 30-year GO yield was unchanged from 2.74%, according to a read of MMD’s triple-A scale.
U.S. Treasuries were stronger at midday. The yield on the two-year Treasury declined to 2.05% on Tuesday from 2.07% on Monday, the 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 2.62% from 2.66% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury decreased to 2.90% from 2.93%.
On Monday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 80.5% compared with 80.8% on Friday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 93.6% versus 93.8%, according to MMD.
Treasury sells $35B 4-week bills
The Treasury Department Tuesday auctioned $35 billion of four-week bills at a 1.230% high yield, a price of 99.904333.
The coupon equivalent was 1.248%. The bid-to-cover ratio was 3.52.
Tenders at the high rate were allotted 87.48%. The median rate was 1.220%. The low rate was 1.200%.
Tenders totaled $123,090,839,300 and the Treasury accepted $35,000,543,000, including $611,790,300 non-competitive.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 39,630 trades on Monday on volume of $9.09 billion.
Texas, California, and New York made up the top three states with the most trades on Monday with the Lone Star State taking 11.294% of the market, the Golden State taking 10.724% and the Empire State taking 9.141%.
Five trends that could affect munis in 2018
The top five trends in the municipal market place in 2018 will be the acceleration of taxable municipal issuance; the outperformance of high-yield municipal bonds; the underperformance of intermediate municipal bonds; the fall of tax-exempt municipal to Treasury ratios to 20-year lows; and the decline of tax-exempt market liquidity, according to a forecast released by MacKay Municipal Managers on Monday.
The year ahead offers both risk and rewards, said the MacKay municipal bond team.
“The traditional approach of being a passive investor focused solely on income is no longer suitable,” John Loffredo and Robert DiMella, co-heads of MacKay said in a market comment released on Monday. “Tax reform and new regulatory policies will present investment opportunities for well-positioned municipal investors, but also increase the risk for those who fail to adjust to the new investment environment.”
MacKay said it expects taxable muni issuance could double to approximately $60 billion annually. “We believe that low rates, tight credit spreads and demand for yield should keep taxable municipal yields low. Issuers will likely refinance their higher cost tax-exempt debt with taxable municipal bonds, overcoming the elimination of tax-exempt financed advance refundings by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The increased volume of taxable municipal bonds should broaden the investor base for these securities, increase liquidity, and provide attractive yield opportunities. Individual investors in high tax states where the top marginal rate is quickly reached may also find in-state taxable municipal bonds, still exempt at the state level, to be attractive.”
MacKay also said it expects favorable technical and improving fundamental conditions will result in tighter high-yield muni credit spreads and outperformance relative to investment-grade municipal bonds.
Conversely, low yields, interest-rate sensitivity, the correlation to Treasury yields, and curve flattening will result in underperformance of higher quality intermediate municipal bonds, MacKay said.“We anticipate higher short-term yields and diminished demand in intermediate municipal bonds by banks and property and casualty insurance companies will lead to a flatter curve,” according to the report.
MacKay expects the muni/Treasury ratios will decline due to supply/demand technicals and improving fundamental conditions. "As a result, we anticipate that tax-exempt municipal bonds will outperform Treasury bonds and other high-quality taxable bonds,” MacKay said.
Finally, MacKay said it believes liquidity for tax-exempt municipals will decline and volatility will rise.
“Lower corporate tax rates will reduce the profitability of trading tax-exempt debt for broker-dealers, leading to a reduction in trading capital committed to the municipal market,” the report said. “As a result, they will likely redeploy capital into the taxable markets to generate trading profits. For capital still committed to the municipal market, we expect broker-dealers to prefer rated, liquid names as the capital cost of positioning non-rated paper will be prohibitive. As a result, non-rated bonds will trade primarily on an agency basis, where the broker will only transact with the seller and buyer simultaneously. We believe this will further reduce their liquidity and, most likely, value.”
MacKay Municipal Managers is the municipal bond team of investment management company MacKay Shields LLC, which is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of New York Life Insurance Co. and a wholly owned subsidiary of New York Life Investment Management Holdings LLC. It has $113 billion in assets under management as of Nov. 30, 2017, which reflects the addition of the Cornerstone Capital Management Holdings LLC’s investment teams that joined MacKay on Jan. 1. MacKay manages fixed income and equity strategies for high-net worth individuals, institutional clients and mutual funds.
BlackRock’s portfolio helped by healthcare, transportation, tobacco
BlackRock, which oversees about $124 billion of municipal debt, put out its monthly report late on Monday afternoon and said the fund posted a strong positive return in December, driven by a longer duration posture, sector allocation and security selection.
“Allocations to the healthcare, transportation and tobacco sectors contributed positively, as did security selection within utilities and state tax-backed,” wrote Peter Hayes, head of the municipal group at BlackRock and portfolio manager of the Strategic Municipal Opportunities Fund, a 5-star fund that adapts to changing municipal markets. “From a yield curve perspective, an overweight in the 20-plus year space added to performance. Exposure to high yield and taxable muni bonds also proved beneficial. Detracting from performance were the fund’s underweight positions in the 0- to 1-year and 8- to 9-year parts of the curve.”
He also added that in December, they started with a pro-risk stance as they took advantage of attractively priced opportunities in the primary market.
“After the tax reform was signed later in the month, we moved to a more defensive posture as we expect rates to move higher amid stronger global growth, less accommodative policy from developed-market central banks and strengthening inflation. We reduced the fund’s duration and increased cash. From a yield curve perspective, we increased exposure to the 0- to 3-year part of the curve while reducing exposure to 15 years and out.”
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
