The action continued in the municipal bond primary market, as the two biggest deals of the week were priced.
Citi priced the Chicago Sales Tax Securitization Corp.’s $605.49 million of taxable bonds on Wednesday. The deal is rated AA-minus by S&P Global Ratings and AAA by Fitch Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency.
The deal was upsized from the originally scheduled $551 million.
Barclays priced the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority’s $475 million of water and sewer system second general resolution revenue bonds. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.
Morgan Stanley priced Miami-Dade County’s $233.30 million of water and sewer system revenue bonds for institutions on Wednesday after a one-day retail order period. The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s, AA-minus by S&P and A-plus by Fitch.
Wednesday’s bond sales
Secondary market
Municipal bonds were mostly stronger on Wednesday, according to a midday read of the MBIS benchmark scale. Benchmark muni yields fell as many as two basis points in the one- to 11-year and 15- to 30-year maturities. The remaining three maturities saw yields rise by less than one basis point.
High-grade munis were also mostly stronger, with yields calculated on MBIS' AAA scale falling as much as one basis point in the one- to 28-year maturities. The last two maturities saw slightly higher yields, by no more than one basis point.
Municipals were mixed on Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale, which showed the yield on the 10-year muni general obligation unchanged, while the 30-year muni maturity was higher by as many as two basis points.
On Tuesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 81.2% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 98.4%, according to MMD. The muni-to-Treasury ratio compares the yield of tax-exempt municipal bonds with the yield of taxable U.S. Treasury with comparable maturities. If the muni/Treasury ratio is above 100%, munis are yielding more than Treasury; if it is below 100%, munis are yielding less.
Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 45,588 trades on Tuesday on volume of $11.875 billion.
California, New York and Texas were the municipalities with the most trades, with the Golden State taking 16.489% of the market, the Empire State taking 12.276% and the Lone Star State taking 11.52%.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
