Muni market set for last big deals

Municipal bond traders are set to see the last of the week’s big deals hit the screens as several large competitive deals remain on tap.

Secondary market
Treasuries were stronger on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury dipped to 1.35% from 1.36% on Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield declined to 2.25% from 2.26% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.82% from 2.84%.

Municipal bonds finished mixed on Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation fell one basis point to 1.94% from 1.95% on Tuesday while the 30-year GO yield was steady at 2.74%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

On Wednesday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 85.8%, compared with 86.6% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 96.2% versus 96.1%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 43,618 trades on Wednesday on volume of $13.98 billion.

Primary market
In the competitive arena, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority is selling $268.03 million of Series 2017C sales tax revenue bonds.

The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-plus by S&P Global Ratings.

Since 2007 the authority has sold $2.59 billion of securities, with the most issuance occurring in 2007 when it sold $536 million. MARTA did not come to market in 2008 or 2010 through 2011, and with Thursday’s sale it has now issued more debt this year than it has since 2014.

BB-080417-MUN

The Portland Public Schools is selling $388.85 million of unlimited tax general obligation bonds for the School District No. 1 of Multnomah County in two separate sales under the Oregon School Bond Guaranty Act.

The offerings consist of $219.9 million of Series 2017B tax-exempt GOs and $168.95 million of Series 2017A taxable GOs.

Both deals are rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P.

The state of South Carolina is competitively selling $157.18 million of unlimited tax GOs for Clemson University in two separate sales consisting of $118.54 million of Series 2017A GO state institution bonds and $38.64 million of Series 2017B GO state institution bonds.

The deals are rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch Ratings.

In the negotiated sector, JPMorgan Securities is expected to price the New Jersey Healthcare Facilities Financing Authority’s $265 million of Series 2017A revenue bonds for the Inspira Health Obligated Group.

The deal is rated A2 by Moody’s and A by Fitch.

JPMorgan is also expected to price Orlando, Fla.’s $221 million of Series 2017A senior lien and Series 2017B second lien tourist development tax refunding revenue bonds.

The deal will be insured by Assured Guaranty Municipal.

Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $238.2 million to $9.77 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $5.99 billion of competitive sales and $3.77 billion of negotiated deals.

Tax-exempt money market funds see inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $231.2 million, bringing total net assets to $130.23 billion in the week ended July 31, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an inflow of $26.5 million to $130.00 billion in the previous week.

The average, seven-day simple yield for the 227 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds was increased to 0.37% from 0.36% the previous week.

The total net assets of the 849 weekly reporting taxable money funds increased $10.72 billion to $2.490 trillion in the week ended Aug. 1, after an inflow of $10.62 billion to $2.480 trillion the week before.

The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds increased to 0.66% from 0.64% in the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,076 weekly reporting money funds increased $10.95 billion to $2.621 trillion in the week ended Aug. 1, after inflows of $10.65 million to $2.610 trillion in the prior week.

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