Municipal market participants are looking for more deals Thursday, but still aren't quite sure what negotiated sales will or won't be pricing.
Secondary Market
U.S. Treasuries were weaker on Thursday morning. The yield on the two-year was up to 1.01% from 1.00% from Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury was higher at 2.24% from 2.22%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.97% from 2.92%.
Munis were mixed on Wednesday, as the yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was two basis points higher at 2.21% from 2.19% on Tuesday, while the yield on the 30-year was steady at 3.01%, according to a final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 99.5% on Wednesday compared to 97.9% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 102.9% versus 101.3%, according to MMD.
Primary Market
On Thursday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is expected to price the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's $513.99 million of measure R senior sales tax revenue bonds for institutional investors, after holding a retail order period on Wednesday.
The bonds were priced for retail to yield from 1.01% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 3.64% with a 3.50% coupon in 2039. No retail orders were taken in 2028 through 2030, 2032 or 2034 through 2038 maturities. The 2017 maturity was offered as a sealed bid. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service and triple-A by S&P Global Ratings.
In the competitive arena, Clark County, Nev., will be selling three issues totaling roughly $510.84 million. The largest deal is $405.16 million of general obligation limited tax refunding bonds. There will also be $57.695 million of GO limited tax refunding plus additionally pledged revenue bonds and $47.985 million of GO limited tax various purpose bonds. All three deals are rated A1 by Moody's and AA-minus by S&P.
The state of New Hampshire is scheduled to sell a total of $113.52 million in two separate competitive sales. The larger sale consists of $62.105 million of GO capital improvement bonds and the other sale is made up of $51.415 million of GO refunding bonds. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's, AA by S&P and AA-plus by Fitch Ratings.
Since 2006, the Granite State has sold roughly $2.19 billion of securities, with the largest issuance occurring in 2010, when it sold $428 million. New Hampshire did not come to market at all in 2007. The last time the state issued competitive bonds was on Dec. 11, 2014, when Citi won $55 million with a TIC of 2.62%
Tax-Exempt Money Market Fund Inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $303.1 million, bringing total net assets to $129.59 billion in the week ended Nov. 14, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an inflow of $1.14 billion to $129.29 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 237 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds dropped to 0.15% from 0.16% in the previous week.
The total net assets of the 866 weekly reporting taxable money funds increased $6.51 billion to $2.524 trillion in the week ended Nov. 15, after an inflow of $13.13 billion to $2.517 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds increased to 0.15% from 0.14% from the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,103 weekly reporting money funds rose $6.81 billion to $2.654 trillion in the week ended Nov. 15 after inflows of $14.27 billion to $2.647 trillion in the prior week.
MSRB: Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 55,461 trades on Wednesday on volume of $17.564 billion.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $3.675 billion to $9.30 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $2.81 billion of competitive sales and $6.49 billion of negotiated deals.
