Market looks ahead to next week

Municipal bond traders on Friday are looking ahead to next week’s new issue calendar, which will be dominated by big bond deals from New York City and Maryland.

Secondary market
U.S. Treasuries were narrowly mixed on Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury was unchanged from 1.27% on Thursday, the 10-year Treasury yield declined to 2.05% from 2.06% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.67% from 2.68%.

Top-rated municipal bonds finished stronger on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation fell three basis points to 1.81% from 1.84% on Wednesday, while the 30-year GO yield dropped two basis points to 2.66% from 2.68%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

The 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 87.9% on Thursday, compared with 87.4% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 99.5% versus 98.5%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 35,789 trades on Thursday on volume of $10.54 billion.

Week’s primary market
Morgan Stanley priced the New Jersey EDA’s $582.78 million of Series 2017A tax-exempt and Series 2017B taxable motor vehicle surcharges subordinate revenue refunding bonds.

The tax-exempts are rated Baa2 by Moody’s Investors Service with the exception of the 2023, 2024, 2027, 2028 and 2031 maturities totaling $213.73 million, which are insured by Build America Mutual and rated AA by S&P Global Ratings. The taxables are rated Baa2 by Moody’s and BBB-plus by S&P.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the city and county of Honolulu’s $350 million of Series 2017H general obligation floating-rate bonds for the Honolulu rail transit project. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by Fitch Ratings.

Goldman Sachs priced the Board of Regents of the University of Texas’ $350 million of Series 2017A taxable revenue financing system bonds. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.

Morgan Stanley priced the Marin Healthcare District, Calif.’s $224 million of Series 2017A election of 2013 general obligation bonds. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AAA by Fitch.

Citigroup priced the Ohio Housing Finance Agency’s $120 million of Series 2017D residential mortgage revenue bonds not subject to the alternative minimum tax issued under the mortgage-backed securities program. The deal is rated Aaa by Moody’s.

In the competitive arena, the Pennsylvania Higher Educational Facilities Authority sold $129 million of state system higher education refunding and refunding revenue bonds in three separate offerings. The deals are rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA-minus by Fitch.

Morgan Stanley won the $77.51 million of Series AU-2 refunding revenue bonds with a true interest cost of 2.5547%. Bank of America Merrill Lynch won the $36.18 million of Series AU-1 revenue bonds with a TIC of 2.8742%. JPMorgan Securities $15.11 million of Series AU-3 million taxable refunding revenue bonds with a TIC of 2.6260%.

In the short-term competitive sector, the Atlanta Independent School System, Ga., sold $100 million of Series 2017 tax anticipation notes. TD Securities won the issue with a bid of 1.50% and a premium of $133,500, an effective rate of 1.067%. The TANs, dated Sept. 8 and due Dec. 29, are not rated.

Next week, New York City will offer about $1.1 billion of general obligation bonds while the Maryland Department of Transportation will competitively sell $500 million of transportation bonds on Wednesday.

Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $2.35 billion to $11.20 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $5.27 billion of competitive sales and $5.93 billion of negotiated deals.

Lipper: Muni bond funds see inflows
Investors in municipal bond funds once again put cash into the funds, according to Lipper data released late Thursday.

The weekly reporters drew $250.368 million of inflows in the week of Sept. 6, after inflows of $344.518 million in the previous week.

Exchange traded funds reported inflows of $2.169 million, after inflows of $80.152 million in the previous week. Ex-EFTs, muni funds saw $248.199 million of inflows, after inflows of $264.366 million in the previous week.

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The four-week moving average was positive at $483.038 million, after being in the green at $578.250 million in the previous week. A moving average is an analytical tool used to smooth out price changes by filtering out fluctuations.

Long-term muni bond funds had inflows of $105.638 million in the latest week after inflows of $248.440 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had inflows of $74.141 million after inflows of $35.870 million in the prior week.

National funds had inflows of $290.814 million after inflows of $339.475 million in the previous week.

High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $165.070 million in the latest week, after inflows of $184.234 million the previous week.

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Primary bond market Secondary bond market Municipal bond funds New Jersey Economic Development Authority
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