Focus remained on the municipal primary as more supply swept into the market on Wednesday.
BofA Securities priced the Illinois Finance Authority’s (NR/AAA/AAA) $450 million of state revolving fund green bonds for institutions on Wednesday after a one-day retail order period.
JPMorgan Securities priced the Port of Portland, Ore.’s (NR/AA-/NR) $208.68 million AMT and non-AMT revenue bond deal for the Portland International Airport.
JPMorgan received the official award on the Board of Regents of the Arizona State University System’s (Aa2/AA/NR) $194.45 million of green revenue bonds and revenue bonds. JPMorgan also got the written award on various revenue bonds (A2/A+/NR) it priced as a remarketing for Sierra Pacific Power Co. projects.
In the competitive arena, Montgomery County, Pa., (Aaa/NR/NR) sold $110.96 million of GOs in two sales.
Raymond James won the $60.46 million of Series 2019C GOs with a true interest cost of 2.3691%.
Mesirow Financial won the $56.05 million of Series 2019A&B GOs with a TIC of 2.9388%.
Proceeds of the Series 2019C bonds will be used to advance refund certain outstanding BABs. Proceeds of the Series 2019A bonds will be used to finance some capital projects in the county’s five-year capital plan. Proceeds of the Series 2019B bonds will be used to finance some capital projects including the fixing of bridges and roads.
The financial advisor is PFM Financial Advisors; the bond counsel is Saul Ewing Arnstein.
Tuesday’s bond sales
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $6.08B
The supply calendar fell $1.35 million to $6.08 billion Wednesday and is composed of $1.99 billion of competitive sales and $4.09 billion of negotiated deals.
ICI: Muni funds see $2.4B inflow
Long-term municipal bond funds and exchange-traded funds saw a combined inflow of $2.356 billion in the week ended March 27, the Investment Company Institute reported on Wednesday.
It was the 12th straight week the funds saw inflows and followed an inflow of $1.892 billion into the tax-exempt mutual funds in the previous week.
Long-term muni funds alone saw an inflow of $2.032 billion after an inflow of $1.629 billion in the previous week; ETF muni funds alone saw an inflow of $324 million after an inflow of $262 million in the prior week.
Taxable bond funds saw combined inflows of $5.528 billion in the latest reporting week after inflows of $8.660 billion in the previous week.
ICI said the total combined estimated outflows into all long-term mutual funds and ETFs were $3.254 billion after inflows of $8.156 billion in the prior week.
Secondary market
Munis were weaker on the MBIS benchmark scale Wednesday, which showed yields rising one basis point in the 10-year and the 30-year maturity. High-grade munis were also weaker, with yields rising two basis points in the 10-year maturity and one basis point the 30-year maturity.
On Refinitiv Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale, the yield on the 10-year muni GO rose three basis points as the yield on the 30-year muni gained five basis points.
The 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 76.9% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 92.2%, according to MMD.
Treasuries were weaker as stocks traded little changed.
“The ICE Muni Yield Curve is three basis points higher in the long end, two basis points lower at the 10-year,” ICE Data Services said in a Wednesday market comment. “Tobaccos are weaker as well with yields up two basis points, and high yield is following suit with yields up one basis point. The taxable market is up four basis points in the long end with the rest of the market more muted.”
Previous session's activity
The MSRB reported 43,121 trades Tuesday on volume of $12.25 billion.
California, New York and Texas were most traded, with the Golden State taking 16.973% of the market, the Lone Star State taking 10.744% and the Empire State taking 10.417%.
The most actively traded issue was the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp. restructured Series 2018 A-1 capital appreciation zeros of 2046 which traded 102 times on volume of $36.62 million.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
