The municipal bond market saw more supply priced in the primary on Wednesday as munis remained mostly weaker at midday.
Primary market
Wells Fargo Securities priced the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority’s $500 million of Series 2019AA transportation program bonds.
The deal is rated Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, BBB-plus by S&P Global Ratings, and A-minus by Fitch Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency. All four rating agencies carry stable outlooks on the credit.
Goldman Sachs priced the Trinity Health Credit Group’s $348.22 million composite issue.
Citigroup priced the Indiana Finance Authority’s $212.23 million of Series 2019A state revolving fund program green bonds.
The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch; all three agencies assign stable outlooks to the credit.
In the competitive sector, Citi won the Florida Department of Transportation’s $224.17 million of Series 2019A turnpike revenue refunding bonds.
The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA by S&P and Fitch.
On Thursday, JPMorgan Securities is expected to price the San Francisco Airport Commission’s $1.78 billion of tax-exempt and taxable revenue and revenue refunding bonds.
The deal, which consists of bonds subject to the alternative minimum tax and non-AMT bonds, is rated A1 by Moody’s and A-plus by S&P and Fitch.
Bond sales
New Jersey
Michigan
Indiana
Florida
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $9.58B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $1.58 billion to $9.58 billion for Wednesday. The total is comprised of $3.03 billion of competitive sales and $6.55 billion of negotiated deals.
Secondary market
Municipal bonds were mostly weaker on Wednesday, according to a midday read of the MBIS benchmark scale. Benchmark muni yields fell as much as two basis points in the one- to nine-year maturities, rose as much as one basis point in the 11- to 30-year maturities and were unchanged in the 10-year maturity.
High-grade munis were also mostly weaker, with yields calculated on MBIS' AAA scale falling as much as one basis point in the one- to 10-year maturities, rising as much as one basis point in the 12- to 30-year maturities and remaining unchanged in the 11-year maturity.
Municipals were weaker on Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale, which showed the yield on the 10-year muni general obligation rising as much as one basis point while the yield on the 30-year muni maturity gained as much as two basis points.
Treasury bonds were weaker amid continuing stock market volatility. The Treasury 30-year was yielding 3.029%, the 10-year yield stood at 2.736%, the five-year was at 2.570%, the two-year was at 2.578% while the Treasury three-month bill stood at 2.578%.
On Tuesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 82.3% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 100.9%, according to MMD. The muni-to-Treasury ratio compares the yield of tax-exempt municipal bonds with the yield of taxable U.S. Treasury with comparable maturities. If the muni/Treasury ratio is above 100%, munis are yielding more than Treasury; if it is below 100%, munis are yielding less.
Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 45,200 trades on Tuesday on volume of $10.34 billion.
California, New York and Texas were the municipalities with the most trades, with the Golden State taking 17.232% of the market, the Empire State taking 10.158% and the Lone Star State taking 9.001%.
Treasury sells $24B reopened 10-year notes
The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion of 9-year 10-month notes with a 3 1/8% coupon at a 2.728% high yield, a price of 103.3988245.
The bid-to-cover ratio was 2.51.
Tenders at the high yield were allotted 81.02%. All competitive tenders at lower yields were accepted in full.
The median yield was 2.690%. The low yield was 2.288%.
Gary E. Siegel contributed to this report.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
