The municipal bond market welcomed the first of the week's new supply as Miami-Dade County, Fla., sold three separate general obligation bond deals totaling $398.745 million.
Municipal bond prices continued to show strength at midday, according to traders, as yields fell substantially.
Primary Market
In the competitive arena, JP Morgan won Miami-Dade's $249.225 million GO refunding bonds for the Building Better Community Program with a true interest cost of 3.2319%.The bonds were priced to yield from 1.56% with a 5% coupon in 2020 to 3.29% with a 4% coupon in 2035.
Wells Fargo Securities won the $53.53 million GO refunding bonds for the Parks Program with a TIC of 2.6640%. The bonds were priced to yield from 1.62% with a 5% coupon in 2020 to about 3.162% with a 3% coupon in 2030.
Robert W. Baird won the $95.99 million GOs for the Public Health Trust program with a TIC of 3.4372%. No other information was immediately available.
All three deals are rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA by Standard & Poor's.
Today, Barclays Capital is offering the top deal of the week -- the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York's $1 billion general purpose state personal income tax revenue bonds -- to retail investors. The DASNY deal will be priced for institutions on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Citigroup is expected to price the Broward County, Fla., School Board's $273 million certificates of participation. The COPs are rated A1 by Moody's, A by S&P and A-plus by Fitch Ratings.
On Thursday, Citigroup will price the Oregon state Department of Administrative Services' $412 million lottery revenue bonds. The bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody's and triple-A by S&P.
Shelby County, Tenn., will sell a $172.6 million general obligation refunding bond issue in a competitive sale on Thursday. This deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA-plus by both S&P and Fitch.
Secondary Market
Prices of top-quality municipal bond were stronger at mid-session. The yield on the benchmark 10-year general obligation dropped four to six basis points from 1.96% on Monday, while the yield on 30-year GOs declined five to seven basis points from 2.77%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
Treasury prices were higher on Tuesday, with the two-year note yield dropping to 0.61% from 0.66% on Monday. The 10-year yield declined to 1.95% on Tuesday from 2.03%, while the 30-year yield decreased to 2.54% from 2.61% on Monday.
On Monday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was at 95.6% compared to 94.8% on Friday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio was at 106.4% versus 101.1% on Friday.
MSRB Reports Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 41,713 trades on Monday on volume of $8.142 billion. Most active on Monday, based on the number of trades, was the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority transportation program bonds, Series AA 4 1/4s of 2044, which traded 290 times with an average price of 101.393 and an average yield of 4.07%.
