Municipal bond traders are looking forward on Thursday seeing to the last of the week's big pricings, topped off by the New York City general obligation bond sale.
On Wednesday, institutional pricings were released for the University of California Regents and the N.Y. Metropolitan Transportation Authority deals.
Primary Market
RBC Capital Markets will release the institutional pricing on New York City's $799.94 million of Fiscal 2015 Series C and D GOs. A retail order period was held on Tuesday and Wednesday.
For retail, the $670.8 million Series C bonds were priced to yield from 0.74% with a 4% coupon in 2017 to 2.97% with a 5% coupon in 2028; a 2031 maturity was priced as 5s to yield 3.13%, a 2034 maturity was priced as 5s to yield 3.26% and a 2035 maturity was priced at par to yield 3.60%. No retail orders were taken in 2029-2030 or 2032-2033; a 2016 maturity was offered as a sealed bid. The NYC $129.14 million Series D bonds were priced to yield from 0.74% with a 2% coupon in 2017 to 3.58% with a 3.50% coupon in 2034; the 2015 and 2016 maturities were offered as sealed bids. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA by Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.
Late Wednesday, Barclays Capital priced the UC's $435.75 million of taxable limited project revenue bonds, Series 2015 J with Raymond James as co-manager. The bonds were priced at par to yield from 0.64% in 2016 to 4.109% in 2032; a 2045 term was priced at par to yield 4.131%. The series is rated Aa3 by Moody's and AA-minus by S&P and Fitch.
Barclay's priced the UC's $788.52 million of tax-exempt Series AO general revenue bonds for institutional investors with Stifel as co-manager on Wednesday after a retail order period on Tuesday. The bonds were priced to yield from 0.20% with a 5% coupon in 2016 to 3.60% with a 3.5% coupon in 2035; a 2040 term bond was priced as a split maturity to yield from 3.26% with a 5% coupon to 3.68% with a 4% coupon; a 2042 term bond was priced to yield 3.78% with a 3.625% coupon. The series is rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by S&P and Fitch.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the N.Y. Metropolitan Transportation Authority's $273.04 million of transportation revenue bonds for institutions after a one-day retail order period. The bonds were priced to yield from 0.80% with a 5% coupon in 2017 to 3.39% with a 5% coupon in 2035; a 2040 term was priced as 5s to yield 3.50%, a 2045 term was priced at par to yield 4% and a 2055 term was priced as 5 1/4s to yield 3.80%. The 2015-2016 maturities were offered as sealed bids. The issue is rated A2 by Moody's, AA-minus by S&P and A by Fitch.
J.P. Morgan Securities priced the Sacramento Transportation Authority's $106.1 million of limited tax Measure A sales tax revenue refunding bonds, Series 2015A. The bonds were priced in a 2038 bullet maturity at par to yield 0.02%, with a note that they will bear interest at a daily or weekly rate. The issue is rated AA-plus by S&P and Fitch. The issue has a standby bond purchase agreement with Mizuho Bank that expires in 2018.
Also expected this week are Dallas' $589 million of taxable and tax-exempt waterworks and sewer system revenue refunding bonds to be priced by Cabrera Capital Markets; Connecticut's $500 million of taxable and tax-exempt GOs to be priced by Citigroup; and the Michigan Finance Authority's $312 million of student loan asset-backed notes to be priced by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Secondary Market
Treasury prices were higher on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury note dropped to 0.65% from 0.68% on Wednesday, while the 10-year yield declined to 2.05% from 2.11% and the 30-year yield decreased to 2.64% from 2.68%.
Prices of top-quality munis finished mixed on Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was unchanged from Tuesday at 2.18%, while the yield on 30-year GO fell by two basis points to 2.98% from 3.00%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 103.3% on Wednesday versus 101.6% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 111.0% compared to 109.8%.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $1.340 billion to $12.400 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $2.581 billion competitive sales and $9.819 billion of negotiated deals.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 38,576 trades on Wednesday on volume of $10.958 billion.
Most active on Wednesday, based on the number of trades, was the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Series 2015 A power system revenue bond 3 1/4s of 2031, which traded 115 times at an average price of 99.541 with an average yield of 3.237%; (initial offering price of 98.139 and an initial offering yield of yield of 3.40%).
