The municipal bond market on Monday is preparing for one of the biggest new issue slates of the year, with over $14 billion of new deals on tap.
Secondary Market
Treasuries were narrowly mixed on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 0.78% from 0.76% on Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 1.60% from 1.59% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.31% from 2.32%.
Top-shelf municipal bonds finished weaker on Friday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation on Friday rose one basis point to 1.51% from 1.50% on Thursday, while the yield on the 30-year increased two basis points to 2.31% from 2.29%, 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 94.6% compared to 96.6% on Thursday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 99.4% versus 100.7%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 29,624 trades on Friday on volume of $14.399 billion.
Prior Week's Actively Traded Issues
Revenue bonds comprised 57.27% of new issuance in the week ended Sept. 30, up from 56.42% in the previous week,
Some of the most actively traded issues by type in the week were from California, Pennsylvania and Illinois. In the GO bond sector, the Grossmont Unified High School District, Calif. 3s of 2044 were traded 70 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission 3.375s of 2041 were traded 92 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Illinois 5.1s of 2033 were traded 21 times.
Previous Week's Top Underwriters
The top negotiated and competitive underwriters of last week included Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Securities and RBC Capital Markets, according to Thomson Reuters data. In the week of Sept. 25-Oct. 1, Citi underwrote $1.48 billion, BAML $880.9 million, Morgan Stanley $826.4 million, JPMorgan $349.4 million and RBC $334 million.
Primary Market
Total volume for this week is estimated at $14.23 billion, consisting of $13.08 billion of negotiated deals and $1.14 billion of competitive sales.
Action gets underway on Tuesday when Barclays Capital gets set to price the Massachusetts School Building Authority's $604.3 million of Series 2016B senior dedicated sales tax bonds and Series 2016C senior dedicated sales tax refunding bonds for retail investors ahead of the institutional pricing on Wednesday. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA-plus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
JPMorgan Securities is expected to price the Arizona Board of Regents Series 2016A system revenue and revenue refunding bonds and Series 2016B system revenue green bonds for the University of Arizona on Tuesday. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA-minus by S&P.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is expected to price the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency's $195 million of Series 2016 BB-1, BB-2 and BB-3 revenue bonds for Boston University. The deal is rated A1 by Moody's and A-plus by S&P.
The biggest deal of the week is also coming from the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs is set to price the $1.54 billion of Series 2016A revenue bonds for Harvard University. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody's Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $53.5 million to $19.91 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $3.66 billion of competitive sales and $16.24 billion of negotiated deals.
