The biggest municipal bond deal of the week, the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority's $485 million revenue bond sale, which was offered to retail investors on Wednesday, will be priced for institutions Thursday.
Primary Market
Citigroup Global Markets Wednesday priced the NYC MWFA's $484.645 million water and sewer second resolution, fixed-rate tax-exempt refunding bonds, Fiscal 2015 Series FF for retail.
The bonds were priced to yield from 2.39% in 2025 with a 4% coupon to 3.03% with a 5% coupon in 2032; a split 2037 term bond was priced as 3 1/2s to yield 3.60% and as 4s to yield 3.55%; a 2039 term was priced as 5s to yield 3.24%. The issue is rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA-plus by both S&P and Fitch.
Since 1995, the NYC MWFA has come to market with around $37 billion of debt. The largest issuance came in 2010, when the authority sold nearly $4 billion of bonds; the smallest issuance occurred in 1999 when it sold about $510 million of debt.
On Wednesday, Fairfax County, Va., sold $229.905 million of public improvement bonds in the competitive arena. Citi had the winning bid with a true interest cost of 2.6772%. The issue was priced to yield from 0.12% with a 2% coupon in 2015 to 3.05% with a 4% coupon in 2034. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody's, S&P and Fitch. Public Financial Management was the financial advisor on the sale.
Fairfax County last sold bonds on Oct. 21, 2014. Citigroup Global Markets won the $208.545 million public improvement bonds with a TIC of 1.9075%.
Secondary Market
Treasury prices moved lower on Thursday. The two-year Treasury note's yield rose to 0.61% from 0.59% on Wednesday while the 10-year yield increased to 2.09% from 2.06% and the 30-year yield rose to 2.72% from 2.68%.
On Wednesday, prices of top-quality municipal bonds moved higher. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation declined one basis point to 2.08% from 2.09% on Tuesday, while the yield on 30-year GO decreased four basis points to 2.88% from 2.92%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 100.6% on Wednesday versus 97.7% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 106.8% compared to 106.6%.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar dropped $1.005 billion to $8.834 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $1.903 billion competitive sales and $6.931 billion of negotiated deals.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 41,826 trades on Wednesday on volume of $9.053 billion.
Most active on Wednesday, based on the number of trades, was the Pennsylvania Higher Educational Facilities Authority's 2015 Series A revenue bonds for Thomas Jefferson University 4s of 2045, which traded 312 times at an average price of 99.62, with an average yield of 4.014%.
