Municipal bond traders are set to see the last of the week's big new issues hit the market on Thursday, as they keep an eye on downwardly drifting muni yields.
Secondary Market
Treasuries were steady on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury was unchanged from 0.69% on Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield was flat from 1.51% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was unchanged from 2.23%.
Top quality municipal bonds finished stronger on Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation fell three basis points to 1.42% from 1.45% on Tuesday, while the yield on the 30-year muni dropped three basis points to 2.15% from 2.18%, 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 94.0% compared to 93.9% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 96.4% versus 96.6%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 35,102 trades on Wednesday on volume of $13.52 billion.
Primary Market
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is expected to price the Michigan State Housing Development Authority's $162 million of Series 2016 A non-AMT and Series 2016B taxable rental housing revenue bonds.
The deal is rated AA by S&P Global Ratings.
Since 2006, the authority has sold $3.13 billion of securities, with the largest issuance coming in 2007 when it offered $916 million. After hitting a low in 2012 with just $11.1 million issued, the MSHDA has increased its issuance every year.
Wells Fargo Securities is set to price the Utah Transit Authority's $142.13 million of sales tax revenue refunding bonds consisting of serials and CABs. The deal is rated A1 by Moody's Investors Service, A-plus by S&P and AA by Fitch Ratings.
Boenning & Scattergood is expected to price the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, Pa.'s $115 million of sewer revenue bonds. The deal is rated A1 by Moody's and A by S&P.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $2.45 billion to $7.38 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $3 billion of competitive sales and $4.38 billion of negotiated deals.
Tax-Exempt Money Market Fund Outflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced outflows of $4.45 billion, bringing total net assets to $179.71 billion in the week ended Aug. 8, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an outflow of $1.76 billion to $184.16 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 271 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds was unchanged from 0.08% in the previous week.
The total net assets of the 889 weekly reporting taxable money funds decreased $6.09 billion to $2.528 trillion in the week ended Aug. 9, after an inflow of $14.64 billion to $2.534 trillion the prior before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds remained at 0.11% from the week before.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,160 weekly reporting money funds fell $10.54 billion to $2.708 trillion in the period ended Aug. 9, which followed an inflow of $12.88 billion to $2.718 trillion.
