The municipal bond market was set to see the last of the week’s big new issue slate come to market on Thursday.
Secondary Trading
U.S. Treasuries were stronger on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury dropped to 0.86% from 0.89% on Wednesday, while the 10-year Treasury yield declined to 1.90% from 1.94% and the 30-year Treasury bond yield decreased to 2.70% from 2.74%.
Top-rated municipal bonds ended mixed on Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation dropped two basis points to 1.88% from 1.90% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni yield was steady at 2.84%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated on Wednesday at 97.1% compared to 97.0% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 103.9% versus 104.4%, according to MMD.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 40,584 trades on Wednesday on volume of $12.25 billion.
Primary Market
JPMorgan Securities is set to price the Nashville and Davidson County Health and Educational Facilities, Tenn.’s issue for institutions after a one-day retail order period.
The $483.995 million of Series 2016A revenue bonds for the Vanderbilt University Medical Center were priced for retail as 5s to yield 3.14% in 2029 and 3.21% in 2030. No retail orders were taken in the 2031, 2035, 2040 or 2046 maturities.
The bonds are rated A3 by Moody’s Investors Service
Wells Fargo Securities is expected to price the Santa Clara Valley Water District, Calif.’s $130.33 million of taxable water system refunding revenue bonds and Series 2016D taxable certificates of participation. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA by Fitch Ratings.
Wells Fargo is also set to price Charleston, S.C.’s $100 million of waterworks and sewer system refunding revenue bonds. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s and AA-plus by Fitch.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar rose $3.14 billion to $8.00 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $1.65 billion of competitive sales and $6.35 billion of negotiated deals.
Tax-Exempt Money Market Funds Post Outflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced outflows of $3.09 billion, bringing total net assets to $236.72 billion in the week ended March 14, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an inflow of $831.8 million to $239.81 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 354 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds remained at 0.01% for the 150th straight week.
The total net assets of the 940 weekly reporting taxable money funds decreased $43.55 billion to $2.547 trillion in the week ended March 15, after an inflow of $24.99 billion to $2.590 trillion in the prior week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds rose to 0.11% from 0.10% where it was for the past five weeks.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,294 weekly reporting money funds decreased $46.64 billion to $2.783 trillion in the period ended March 15, which followed an inflow of $25.82 billion to $2.830 trillion.
