Municipal bond traders will be looking ahead to next week's new issue slate, which is headlined by the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority's $750 million sale of senior lien revenue bonds.
Secondary Trading
Treasury prices were mixed on Friday, with the yield on the two-year Treasury note rising to 0.73% from 0.71% on Thursday, while the 10-year yield rose to 2.19% from 2.18% and the 30-year yield decreased to 2.84% from 2.86%.
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation on Thursday rose two basis points to 2.19% from 2.17% on Wednesday, while the yield on the 30-year GO was up one basis point to 3.07% from 3.06%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated on Thursday at 100.2% versus 101.8% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 107.5% compared to 108.5%, according to MMD.
Primary Market
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is slated to price PRASA's Series 2015A bonds on Tuesday. The issue is rated Caa3 by Moody's Investors Service, CCC-minus by Standard & Poor's and CC by Fitch Ratings.
Citigroup is expected to price the New York Convention Center Development Corp.'s $650 million of refunding revenue hotel unit fee secured bonds on Wednesday. The issue is rated A1 by Moody's and A-plus by S&P.
Barclays Capital is set to price the Illinois Finance Authority's $400 million of Series 2015A revenue bonds for the University of Chicago on Wednesday. The issue is rated Aa2 by Moody's, AA by S&P and AA-plus by Fitch.
Citi is expected to price the Hillsborough County, Fla., Aviation Authority's $386 million of tax-exempt and taxable airport revenue bonds for the Tampa International Airport on Tuesday. The bonds are rated A3 by Moody's and A-minus by S&P and Fitch.
And Citi is set to price the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency's $290 million of tax-exempt and taxable revenue bonds on Thursday. The issue is rated A3 by Moody's and A-minus by S&P.
In the competitive arena on Tuesday, Portland, Ore., will sell $341.53 million of Series 2015A first lien sewer system revenue refunding bonds and $62.39 million of Series 2015B second lien sewer system revenue refunding bonds The Series 2015A bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by S&P while the Series 2015B bonds are rated Aa3 by Moody's and AA-minus by S&P.
Municipal Bond Funds See Inflows
Municipal bond funds saw inflows in the latest week, according to the Lipper. Funds which report weekly saw $11.087 million of inflows in the week ended Aug. 12, after seeing outflows of $308.245 million in the previous week.
The latest inflow brings to 17 out of 33 weeks this year that the funds have seen a cash infusion. Inflows for the year to date are still in the green, totaling $2.964 million.
The four-week moving average remained negative at $61.280 million after being in the red at $71.365 million in the previous week. The moving average has now been negative for 12 weeks in a row. A moving average is an analytical tool used to smooth out price changes by filtering out fluctuations.
Long-term muni bond funds also experienced inflows, gaining $134.829 million in the latest week, after seeing outflows of $208.019 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds saw inflows of $8.368 million after seeing outflows of $1.413 million in the prior week.
Exchange traded funds saw inflows of $49.071 million, after experiencing inflows of $40.478 million in the previous week.
And high-yield muni funds saw inflows of $60.437 million in the latest reporting week, after seeing an outflow of $57.808 million the previous week.
In the past 16 weeks, high-yield funds have seen outflows 11 times totaling $1.775 billion and inflows five times totaling $139.222 million.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 37,586 trades on Thursday on volume of $10.481 billion.
The most active bond, based on the number of trades, was the New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority's Series 2015H revenue refunding bonds for Kean University 4s of 2039, which traded 233 times at an average price of 100.488, an average yield of 3.927%. The bonds were initially priced at 97.766 to yield 4.13%.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar rose $1.49 billion to $8.92 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $2.84 billion competitive sales and $6.08 billion of negotiated deals.
