Muni market looks ahead to holiday-shortened week, Sales Tax bond sale

The municipal bond market is gearing up for a lighter-than-average new issue calendar in a holiday-shortened week with several large offerings jammed into just a few active trading days. Topping next week’s slate is the Sales Tax Securitization Corp.’s $898 million bond deal out of Chicago.

Ipreo estimates weekly volume at $3.35 billion, up from $3.12 billion this week. Next week’s slate consists of $2.36 billion of negotiated deals and $986.4 million of competitive sales.

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Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale is mixed in morning trading.

The 10-year muni benchmark yield rose to 2.368% on Friday from the final read of 2.363% on Thursday, according to Municipal Bond Information Services. The MBIS 30-year benchmark muni yield fell to 2.850% from 2.858%.

The MBIS benchmark index is updated hourly on the Bond Buyer Data Workstation.

U.S. Treasuries are weaker in early activity. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 2.00% from 1.96% on Thursday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.57% from 2.53% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury increased to 2.88% from 2.87%.

Top-rated municipal bonds finished mixed on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was steady from 2.12% on Wednesday, while the 30-year GO yield fell one basis point to 2.71% from 2.72%, according to the final read of MMD’s triple-A scale.

On Thursday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 83.8% compared with 83.2% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 94.6% versus 94.0%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 43,524 trades on Thursday on volume of $12.96 billion.

Week's actively traded issues
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week ended Jan. 12 were from California, New jersey and Pennsylvania issuers, according to Markit.

In the GO bond sector, the Santa Clara Unified School District., Calif., 3s of 2036 traded 24 times. In the revenue bond sector, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority 4s of 2047 traded 47 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority 3.864s of 2038 traded 71 times.

Week's actively quoted issues
New Jersey and Illinois names were among the most actively quoted bonds in the week ended Jan. 12, according to Markit.

On the bid side, New Jersey Turnpike Authority 4s of 2043 were quoted by 45 unique dealers. On the ask side, the N.J. Turnpike 4s of 2043 were quoted by 207 dealers. And among two-sided quotes, Illinois taxable 6.63s of 2035 were quoted by 21 unique dealers.

Week’s primary market
Massachusetts sold $600 million of unlimited tax general obligation bonds in two separate sales. Bank of America Merrill Lynch won the $400 million of consolidated loan of 2018 Series A GOs with a true interest cost of 3.7109%. TD Securities won the $200 million of consolidated loan of 2018 Series B GOs with a TIC of 2.5094%. Both deals are rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, AA by S&P Global Ratings and AA-plus by Fitch Ratings.

Fairfax County, Va., sold $225.19 million of Series 2018A unlimited tax GO public improvement bonds. Citigroup won the bonds with a TIC of 2.6642%. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.

And the Roseville Area Schools Independent School District No. 623, Minn., sold $139.24 million of Series 2018A unlimited tax GO school building bonds. BAML won the bonds with a TIC of 3.1151%. The deal was sold under the Minnesota School District Credit Enhancement Program and rated Aa2 by Moody’s.

Worcester, Mass., sold $103.795 million of GOs in two separate sales. Morgan Stanley won the $75.195 million of municipal purpose loan of 2018 Series A GOs with a true interest cost of 2.8991% while Raymond James won the $28.6 million of taxable Series B GOs with a TIC of 3.7379%. The deals are rated Aa3 by Moody’s, AA-minus by S&P and AA by Fitch.

Colorado sold $375 million of Series 2017B education loan program tax and revenue anticipation notes. Morgan Stanley won the TRANs and took: $250 million of the notes with a dollar bid of $101.23, a 4% coupon, and a premium of $3,075,000, an effective rate of 1.2516%; $75 million of the notes with a dollar bid of $101.21, a 4% coupon, and a premium of $909,000, an effective rate of 1.2914%; and $50 million of the notes with a dollar bid of $101.22, a 4% coupon, and a premium of $608,000, an effective rate of 1.2825%. The TRANs are rated MIG1 by Moody’s and SP1-plus by S&P.

Morgan Stanley priced Stanford Health Care, Calif.’s $500 million of Series 2018 corporate CUSIP taxable bonds. The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s, AA-minus by S&P and AA by Fitch.

RBC Capital Markets priced the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority’s $412.0 million of Series 2018A taxable revenue bonds for the Plancon program. The deal is rated A1 by Moody’s, A by S&P and A-plus by Fitch.

JPMorgan Securities priced the Illinois Finance Authority’s $223.55 million of Series 2018 taxable revenue refunding bonds for the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The deal is rated AA-minus by S&P and AA by Fitch.

JPMorgan priced the Tomball Independent School District, Texas’ $133.41 million of Series 2018 unlimited tax school building bonds. The deal is backed by the Permanent School Fund guarantee program and is rated triple-A by Moody’s and S&P.

Next week, Goldman Sachs is set to price the Sales Tax Securitization Corp.’s $898.07 million of Series 2018A sales tax securitization bonds on Wednesday.

The Chicago deal is rated AA by S&P, and AAA by Fitch and Kroll Rating Agency.

Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $6.49B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $1.18 billion to $6.49 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $2.26 billion of competitive sales and $4.23 billion of negotiated deals.

Lipper: Muni bond funds saw outflows
Investors in municipal bond funds turned around and put cash back into the funds in the latest week, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.

The weekly reporters saw $1.06 billion of inflows in the week of Jan. 10, after outflows of $47.880 million in the previous week.

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Exchange traded funds reported inflows of $22.703 million, after inflows of $195.493 million in the previous week. Ex-ETFs, muni funds saw $1.04 billion of inflows, after outflows of $243.373 million in the previous week.

The four-week moving average was positive at $271.840 million, after being positive $59.882 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 $1.12 billion in the latest week after inflows of $255.775 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had inflows of $360.123 million after inflows of $8.637 million in the prior week.

National funds had inflows of $988.826 million after inflows of $138.051 million in the previous week.

High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $365.937 million in the latest week, after inflows of $73.675 million the previous week.

Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation. Click here for a brief tour of the Workstation, or contact Vanessa Kim at 212-803-8474 for more information.

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Primary bond market Secondary bond market Municipal bond funds Chicago Sales Tax Securitization Corp Commonwealth of Massachusetts Illinois Finance Authority
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