Municipals stronger ahead of next week’s $7.4B new issue calendar

Top-shelf municipal bonds were stronger at midday, according to traders, who are looking ahead to next week’s new issue calendar, which will be dominated by big bond deals from New York City and Maryland.

Ipreo estimates total bond volume for next week at $7.42 billion, up from a revised total of $2.40 billion this week, according to data from Thomson Reuters. Next week’s slate is composed of $4.99 billion of negotiated deals and $2.43 billion of competitive sales.

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Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation fell as much as one basis point from 1.81% on Thursday, while the 30-year GO yield dropped as much as one basis point from 2.66%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

U.S. Treasuries were narrowly mixed on Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury was unchanged from 1.27% on Thursday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.07% from 2.06% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.69% from 2.68%.

On Thursday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 87.9%, compared with 87.4% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 99.5% versus 98.5%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 35,789 trades on Thursday on volume of $10.54 billion.

Week's actively traded issues
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week ended Sept. 8 were from California and Texas issuers, according to Markit.

In the GO bond sector, the California 4s of 2047 were traded 94 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Texas 4s of 2018 were traded 97 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the University of Texas 3.354s of 2047 were traded 33 times.

Week's actively quoted issues
New Jersey, California and New York & New Jersey names were among the most actively quoted bonds in the week ended Sept. 8, according to Markit.

On the bid side, the South Jersey Port Corp. taxable 7.365s of 2040 were quoted by 59 unique dealers. On the ask side, the California taxable 7.3s of 2039 were quoted by 120 dealers. And among two-sided quotes, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey taxable 4.458s of 2062 were quoted by 31 unique dealers.

Week’s primary market
Morgan Stanley priced the New Jersey EDA’s $582.78 million of Series 2017A tax-exempt and Series 2017B taxable motor vehicle surcharges subordinate revenue refunding bonds.

The tax-exempts are rated Baa2 by Moody’s Investors Service with the exception of the 2023, 2024, 2027, 2028 and 2031 maturities totaling $213.73 million, which are insured by Build America Mutual and rated AA by S&P Global Ratings. The taxables are rated Baa2 by Moody’s and BBB-plus by S&P.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the city and county of Honolulu’s $350 million of Series 2017H general obligation floating-rate bonds for the Honolulu rail transit project. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by Fitch Ratings.

Goldman Sachs priced the Board of Regents of the University of Texas’ $350 million of Series 2017A taxable revenue financing system bonds. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.

Morgan Stanley priced the Marin Healthcare District, Calif.’s $224 million of Series 2017A election of 2013 general obligation bonds. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AAA by Fitch.

Citigroup priced the Ohio Housing Finance Agency’s $120 million of Series 2017D residential mortgage revenue bonds not subject to the alternative minimum tax issued under the mortgage-backed securities program. The deal is rated Aaa by Moody’s.

In the competitive arena, the Pennsylvania Higher Educational Facilities Authority sold $129 million of state system higher education refunding and refunding revenue bonds in three separate offerings. The deals are rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA-minus by Fitch.

Morgan Stanley won the $77.51 million of Series AU-2 refunding revenue bonds with a true interest cost of 2.5547%. Bank of America Merrill Lynch won the $36.18 million of Series AU-1 revenue bonds with a TIC of 2.8742%. JPMorgan Securities $15.11 million of Series AU-3 million taxable refunding revenue bonds with a TIC of 2.6260%.

In the short-term competitive sector, the Atlanta Independent School System, Ga., sold $100 million of Series 2017 tax anticipation notes. TD Securities won the issue with a bid of 1.50% and a premium of $133,500, an effective rate of 1.067%. The TANs, dated Sept. 8 and due Dec. 29, are not rated.

Next week, New York City will offer about $1.1 billion of general obligation bonds while the Maryland Department of Transportation will competitively sell $500 million of transportation bonds on Wednesday.

Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $2.35 billion to $11.20 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $5.27 billion of competitive sales and $5.93 billion of negotiated deals.

Lipper: Muni bond funds see inflows
Investors in municipal bond funds once again put cash into the funds, according to Lipper data released late Thursday.

The weekly reporters drew $250.368 million of inflows in the week of Sept. 6, after inflows of $344.518 million in the previous week.

Exchange traded funds reported inflows of $2.169 million, after inflows of $80.152 million in the previous week. Ex-EFTs, muni funds saw $248.199 million of inflows, after inflows of $264.366 million in the previous week.

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The four-week moving average was positive at $483.038 million, after being in the green at $578.250 million in the previous week. A moving average is an analytical tool used to smooth out price changes by filtering out fluctuations.

Long-term muni bond funds had inflows of $105.638 million in the latest week after inflows of $248.440 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had inflows of $74.141 million after inflows of $35.870 million in the prior week.

National funds had inflows of $290.814 million after inflows of $339.475 million in the previous week.

High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $165.070 million in the latest week, after inflows of $184.234 million the previous week.

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Primary bond market Secondary bond market Municipal bond funds New Jersey Economic Development Authority City of New York, NY
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