Municipal bond market participants are set to see the last of the week's big new issues come to market on Thursday, led off by deals from Colorado and Texas.
Secondary Market
U.S. Treasuries were weaker on Thursday. The yield on the two-year rose to 0.88% from 0.87% on Tuesday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 1.83% from 1.79% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.58% from 2.54%.
Top-quality municipal bonds finished mixed on Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was flat from 1.72% on Tuesday, while the yield on the 30-year rose one basis point to 2.55% from 2.54%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 96.3% on Wednesday compared to 97.9% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 100.6% versus 101.6%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 41,093 trades on Wednesday on volume of $13.83 billion.
Primary Market
Goldman Sachs is expected to price the Colorado Regional Transportation District's $197.44 million of Series 2016A sales tax revenue bonds for the FasTracks project. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service, AA-plus by S&P Global Ratings and AA by Fitch Ratings.
Raymond James & Associates is set to price the Conroe Independent School District, Texas' $191 million of unlimited tax school building and refunding bonds. The deal, which is backed by the Permanent School Fund guarantee program is rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P.
Morgan Stanley is expected to price the New Hampshire Health and Education Facilities Authority's $150 million of Series 2016 revenue bonds for Elliot hospital.
Piper Jaffray is set to price the New Hope Cultural Educational Facilities Finance Corp., Texas' $150 million of Texas A&M University Cain Hall redevelopment project Phase II bonds. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA-plus by S&P.
In the competitive arena, the North Texas Municipal Water District is selling $330.56 million of Series 2016 water system revenue refunding and improvement bonds.
The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's and AAA by S&P.
The district last sold comparable bonds competitively on April 23, 2015, when Barclays Capital won $302.13 million of Series 2015 water system revenue refunding and improvement bonds with a true interest cost of 3.48%.
Since 2006, the NTMWD has sold about $2.8 billion of securities, with the largest issuance occurring in 2015 when it sold $492 million, with Thursday's sale, the district will have sold roughly the same amount. The district sold no bonds in 2011.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $6.14 billion to $12.96 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $3.00 billion of competitive sales and $9.96 billion of negotiated deals.
Tax-Exempt Money Market Fund Inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $568.9 million, bringing total net assets to $128.21 billion in the week ended Oct. 24, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an inflow of $290.6 billion to $127.64 billion in the previous week. This two week streak comes on the heels of 32 consecutive weeks of outflows.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 237 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds dropped to 0.25% from 0.32% in the previous week.
The total net assets of the 855 weekly reporting taxable money funds increased $17.71 billion to $2.487 trillion in the week ended Oct. 25, after an outflow of $7.51 billion to $2.469 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds decreased to 0.13% from 0.14% the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,092 weekly reporting money funds rose $18.28 billion to $2.615 trillion in the period ended Oct. 25, which followed an outflow of $7.22 billion to $2.597 trillion.
