Municipal bond traders were girding to take on the next wave of supply on Wednesday, while keeping an eye on yields.
Secondary Market
Treasury prices were mostly lower on Wednesday, with the yield on the two-year Treasury note unchanged from 0.72% on Tuesday, while the 10-year yield rose to 2.24% from 2.21% and the 30-year yield increased to 2.93% from 2.89%.
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation on Tuesday finished up two basis points to 2.21% from 2.19% on Monday, while the yield on the 30-year GO ended steady at 3.10%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated on Tuesday at 100.1% versus 102.0% on Monday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 107.5% compared to 108.8%, according to MMD.
Primary Market
On Wednesday, Minnesota will competitively sell five separate sales totaling over $1 billion.
The offerings consist of $386.50 million of Series 2015D general obligation state various purpose refunding bonds; $376.11 million of Series 2015A GO state various purpose refunding bonds; $310 million of Series 2015B GO state trunk highway bonds; $14.89 million of Series 2015E GO state trunk highway refunding bonds; and $7.2 million of Series 2015C taxable GO state various purpose bonds.
The issues are rated Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service and AA-plus by Fitch Ratings.
The state last competitively sold comparable bonds on Aug. 12, 2014, when Bank of America Merrill Lynch won $429.67 million of Series 2014A GO state various purpose bonds with a true interest cost of 2.83%.
Since 1995, the state has issued roughly $17.14 billion of debt. The years of 2009 and 2010 saw the most issuance with $1.71 billion and $1.77 billion, respectively. The North Star State had low issuance years of 1997 and 1999, when they came to market with $226 million and $185 million, respectively.
Loudoun County, Va., has slated a competitive sale of $117.53 million of Series 2015 water and sewer system revenue and refunding bonds on Wednesday. The issue is rated triple-A by Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch.
In the negotiated sector, the Oakland Unified School District in Alameda, Calif., is selling $356.18 million of GOs on Wednesday. Siebert Brandford Shank is scheduled to price the bonds, which consist of $175 million of Series 2015A Election of 2012 GOs, $5 million of Series 2015B Election 02012 taxable GOs, and $176.18 million of GO refunding bonds.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 43,962 trades on Tuesday on volume of $6.923 billion.
The most active bond, based on the number of trades, was the Connecticut Series 2015E GO 5s of 2026, which traded 158 times at an average price of 118.893, an average yield of 2.81%. The bonds were initially priced at 118.893 to yield 2.81%.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar was down $1.84 billion to $9.02 billion on Wednesday. The total is comprised of $2.99 billion competitive sales and $6.03 billion of negotiated deals.
