Muni market digests holiday week supply as it looks ahead to $11.7B slate

The municipal bond market gets is preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday while looking ahead to next week’s hefty new issue calendar.

Ipreo estimates volume for the upcoming week at $11.73 billion, consisting of $10.03 billion of negotiated deals and $1.71 billion of competitive sales.

BB-112717-MUN

Secondary market
Municipal bonds were weaker in mid-morning trade.

The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose one to three basis points from 2.04% on Tuesday, while the 30-year GO yield increased one to three basis points from 2.73%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data’s triple-A scale.

U.S. Treasuries were mixed on Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 1.75% from 1.77% on Tuesday, the 10-year Treasury yield dipped to 2.35% from 2.36% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury increased to 2.77% from 2.76%.

On Tuesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 86.4% compared with 84.9% on Monday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 98.9% versus 96.8%, according to MMD.

MBIS 10-year muni at 2.317%, 30-year at 2.836%
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale was weaker in mid-morning trading.

The 10-year muni benchmark yield rose to 2.317% on Wednesday from the final read of 2.300% on Tuesday, according to Municipal Bond Information Services, a national consortium of municipal interdealer brokers. The MBIS 30-year benchmark muni yield increased to 2.836% from 2.817%.

The AP-MBIS benchmark index is a yield curve built on market data aggregated from MBIS member firms and is updated hourly on the Bond Buyer Data Workstation.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 40,573 trades on Tuesday on volume of $10.69 billion.

Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $6.34 billion to $16.92 billion. The total is comprised of $4.14 billion of competitive sales and $12.78 billion of negotiated deals.

Week’s primary market
The holiday week saw chunky new issuance topped by a big advance refunding deal from New York.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $2.11 billion of Series 2017C transportation revenue refunding green bonds for institutions.

The advance refunding is rated A1 by Moody’s Investors Service, AA-minus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings and AA-plus by Kroll Bond Rating Agency.

MTA subway
A passenger exits a "W" line subway train at the Union Square stop in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Build America Bonds were meant to help local governments borrow at lower cost amid a global credit crunch. When the New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) sold $750 million of the securities, it shared the savings with traders and investors. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

Wells Fargo Securities priced the Virginia Transportation Board’s $483.39 million of Series 2017 federal transportation grant anticipation revenue and refunding notes. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.

BAML priced the North Broward Hospital District, Fla.’s $318.15 million of Series 2017B revenue bonds for Broward Health. The deal is rated Baa2 by Moody’s and BBB-plus by S&P.

RBC Capital Markets priced Colorado’s $268.87 million of Building Excellent Schools Today tax-exempt certificates of participation. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA-minus by S&P.

JPMorgan Securities priced the Louisiana Local Government Environmental Facilities and Community Development Authority’s $250 million of revenue refunding bonds, not subject to the alternative minimum tax, for Westlake Chemical Corp. projects (GO Zone). The deal is rated Baa3 by Moody’s and BBB by S&P and Fitch.

In the competitive arena, Orange County, N.Y., sold $73.23 million of public improvement serial bonds in three separate offerings. Citigroup won the $55.51 million of Series 2017A bonds with a true interest cost of 2.5097%; Citi also won the $13.21 million of Series 2017B bonds with a TIC of 1.6159%; and Robert W. Baird won the $4.52 million of Series 2017C taxable bonds with a TIC of 2.5097%. The deals are rated Aa3 by Moody’s.

Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation. Click here for a brief tour of the Workstation, or contact Vanessa Kim at 212-803-8474 for more information.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Primary bond market Secondary bond market Metropolitan Transportation Authority State of Colorado
MORE FROM BOND BUYER