Municipal bond buyers are seeing the last of this week’s big deals hit the screens on Thursday as their eyes turn to next week’s new issue slate.
Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale was mixed in early trading.
The 10-year muni benchmark yield fell to 2.336% on Thursday from the final read of 2.345% on Wednesday, according to
The MBIS benchmark index is updated hourly on the
U.S. Treasuries were little changed in early activity. The yield on the two-year Treasury was flat from from 1.97% on Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield was unchanged from 2.56% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury increased to 2.90% from 2.89%.
Top-rated municipal bonds finished substantially weaker on Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose seven basis points to 2.12% from 2.05% on Tuesday, while the 30-year GO yield gained eight basis points to 2.72% from 2.64%, according to the final read of MMD’s triple-A scale.
On Wednesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 83.2% compared with 80.5% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 94.0% versus 91.5%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 46,686 trades on Wednesday on volume of $13.14 billion.
Primary market
RBC Capital Markets received the written award on the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority’s $412.0 million of Series 2018A taxable revenue bonds for the Plancon program.
The issue was priced at par to yield from 3.451% in 2027 to 3.781% in 2031 and 3.864% in 2038.
The deal is rated A1 by Moody’s Investors Service, A by S&P Global Ratings and A-plus by Fitch Ratings.
JPMorgan Securities priced the Illinois Finance Authority’s $223.52 million of Series 2018 taxable revenue refunding bonds for the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
The issue was priced at par to yield from 3.498% in 2028 to 3.748% in 2034 and 3.944% in 2047.
The deal is rated AA-minus by S&P and AA by Fitch.
JPMorgan is also set to price the Tomball Independent School District, Texas’ $137.59 million of Series 2018 unlimited tax school building bonds.
The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s and S&P.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $5.30B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $534.6 million to $5.30 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $2.25 billion of competitive sales and $3.05 billion of negotiated deals.
Tax-exempt money market funds saw inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $4.34 billion, bringing total net assets to $135.40 billion in the week ended Jan. 8, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.
This followed an inflow of $130.8 million to $131.06 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 199 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds dropped to 0.96% from 1.03% the previous week.
The total net assets of the 832 weekly reporting taxable money funds decreased $7.07 billion to $2.668 trillion in the week ended Jan. 9, after an inflow of $4.66 billion to $2.675 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds increased to 0.93% from 0.92% from the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,031 weekly reporting money funds decreased $2.73 billion to $2.803 trillion in the week ended Jan. 9, after inflows of $4.79 billion to $2.806 trillion in the prior 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.
