Municipal bond traders are back at work in earnest as they get set to take on a new issue slate that’s dominated by competitive sales on Tuesday and taxable deals on Wednesday and Thursday.
Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale was stronger in early trading.
The 10-year muni benchmark yield fell to 2.265% on Monday from the final read of 2.275% on Friday, according to
The MBIS benchmark index is updated hourly on the
U.S. Treasuries are stronger in early activity. The yield on the two-year Treasury declined to 1.94% on Monday from 1.96% on Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield dipped to 2.47% from 2.48% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury decreased to 2.79% from 2.81%.
Top-rated municipal bonds ended weaker on Friday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose two basis points to 2.01% from 1.99% on Thursday, while the 30-year GO yield gained two basis points to 2.58% from 2.56% according to the final read of MMD’s triple-A scale.
On Friday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 81.2% compared with 81.3% on Thursday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 91.8% versus 92.0%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 38,762 trades on Friday on volume of $10.35 billion.
Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 56.45% of new issuance in the week ended Jan. 5, up from 56.41% in the previous week, according to
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week were from New York and Illinois issuers.
In the GO bond sector, the New York City zeroes of 2042 were traded 31 times. In the revenue bond sector, the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority zeroes of 2050 were traded 24 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Illinois 5.1s of 2033 were traded 12 times.
Primary market
This week’s volume is estimated at $3.30 billion, which is composed of $1.72 billion of negotiated deals and $1.58 billion of competitive sales.
Primary activity on Tuesday is centered in the competitive sector.
Kicking off the action is
The issues consist of $400 million of consolidated loan of 2018 Series A GOs and $200 million of consolidated loan of 2018 Series B GOs.
Both deals are rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, AA by S&P Global Ratings and AA-plus by Fitch Ratings
The last time the state competitively sold comparable bonds was on Oct. 18, 2017, when Bank of America Merrill Lynch won $300 million of consolidated loan of 2017 Series E GOs with a true interest cost of 2.8724%.
Fairfax County, Va., is selling $225.19 million of Series 2018A unlimited tax GO public improvement bonds.
The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.
The Roseville Area Schools Independent School District No. 623, Minn., is selling $139.24 million of Series 2018A unlimited tax GO school building bonds.
The deal is being sold under the Minnesota School District Credit Enhancement Program.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $6.81B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $111.2 million to $6.81 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $3.12 billion of competitive sales and $3.68 billion of negotiated deals.
Previous week's top underwriters
The top municipal bond underwriters of last week included RBC Capital Markets, Stifel, BB&T Capital Markets, Roosevelt & Cross and Robert W. Baird, according to Thomson Reuters data.
In the week of Jan. 1 to Jan. 6, RBC underwrote $566.7 million, Stifel $116.0 million, BB&T $37.7 million, R&C $10.5 million, and Baird $8.4 million.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
