The municipal bond market is set to see about $8.7 billion of new issues hit the screens this week, with the calendar made up of about $6.7 billion of negotiated deals and around $2 billion of competitive sales.
Secondary Market
U.S. Treasuries were stronger on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury dipped to 1.20% from 1.21% on Friday, while the 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 2.37% from 2.42%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.96% from 3.00%.
Top-shelf municipal bonds ended mixed on Friday. The 10-year benchmark muni general obligation yield was unchanged from 2.24% on Thursday, while the yield on the 30-year GO rose one basis point to 3.00% from 2.99%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
On Friday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 92.6% compared with 94.7% on Thursday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 99.8%, versus 101.0%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 43,085 trades on Friday on volume of $12.25 billion.
Prior Week's Actively Traded Issues
Revenue bonds comprised 58.87% of new issuance in the week ended Jan. 6, down from 59.03% in the previous week, according to
Some of the most actively traded issues by type were from New York and California.
In the GO bond sector, the New York City 4s of 2043 were traded 16 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California 5s of 2037 were traded 26 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the California 7.6s of 2040 were traded 19 times.
Previous Week's Top Underwriters
The top negotiated and competitive underwriters of last week included Wells Fargo Securities, Barclays Capital, RBC Capital Markets, JPMorgan Securities and Piper Jaffray, according to Thomson Reuters data.
In the week of Jan. 1 to Jan. 7, Wells Fargo underwrote $956.7 million, Barclays $589.9 million, RBC $473.9 million, JPMorgan $391.2 million and Piper Jaffray $381.2 million.
Primary Market
The biggest scheduled negotiated deal on the calendar this week is the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority's $665 million of general revenue and refunding bonds. Goldman Sachs is set to price the offering on Thursday.
The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody's Investors Service, AA-minus by Fitch Ratings and AA by Kroll Bond Rating Agency.
Ramirez & Co. is slated to price the state of Wisconsin's $524 million of general fund annual appropriation of Series A federal taxable bonds and Series B of tax-exempts on Thursday. The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody's, AA-minus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch and AA-minus by Kroll.
In the competitive arena, Washington State will be selling three separate sales totaling $626 million on Tuesday.
The largest sale is expected to be $437.42 million of various purpose general obligation bonds. The second largest will consist of $139.02 million of various purpose GO refunding bonds and the last deal will be $49.97 million of state motor vehicle fuel tax GO bonds and refunding bonds. All three deals are rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.
Another deal that a lot of market participants will be looking at is Trinity Health Credit Group's $333.87 million composite bond issue for Michigan, Idaho, Maryland and Ohio.
Goldman will serve as underwriter on the deal, which is scheduled to price on Tuesday and is rated Aa3 by Moody's and Aa-minus by S&P and Fitch.
The deal is broken into different series being issued through the Michigan Finance Authority, the Maryland Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority, the Idaho Health Facilities Authority, and Franklin County, Ohio; conduit issuers in states with Trinity facilities.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $561.3 million to $16.94 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $3.59 billion of competitive sales and $13.36 billion of negotiated deals.
