Municipal bond market looks to next week’s new issue slate

Municipal bond market participants are looking ahead to next week’s new issue slate, which is dominated by a big California healthcare issuer – bringing both corporate and tax-exempt debt.

Kaiser Pemanente is coming to market next week with two separate issues -- totaling almost $4 billion. One is a corporate CUSIP taxable deal for $2 billion slated to be priced by Goldman Sachs and the other is a $1.9 billion offering issued through the California Health Facilities Financing Authority.

Both deals are rated AA-minus by S&P Global Ratings and A-plus by Fitch Ratings.

Secondary market
U.S. Treasuries were stronger on Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 1.18% from 1.20% on Thursday, while the 10-year Treasury yield declined to 2.23% from 2.24%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.88% from 2.89%.

Municipals finished weaker on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose two basis points to 2.05% from 2.03% on Wednesday, while the 30-year GO yield increased four basis points to 2.90% from 2.86%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

On Thursday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 91.5%, compared with 92.1% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 100.3%, versus 99.9%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 42,048 trades on Thursday on volume of $12.07 billion.

Week's most actively traded issues
Some of the most actively traded issues by type in the week ended April 21 were from California and Pennsylvania, according to Markit.

In the GO bond sector, the California 3.5s of 2027 were traded 23 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Geisinger Authority, Pa., 4s of 2047 were traded 36 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Riverside County Public Financing Authority, Calif., 4s of 2040 were traded 15 times.

Week's most actively quoted issues
Puerto Rico, New York and New Jersey names were among the most actively quoted bonds in the week ended April 21, according to Markit.

On the bid side, the Puerto Rico Commonwealth GO 5s of 2041 were quoted by 42 unique dealers. On the ask side, the New York City Transitional Finance Authority revenue 3.5s of 2038 were quoted by 230 unique dealers. And among two-sided quotes, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority taxable 7.414s of 2040 were quoted by 30 unique dealers.

Primary market
The state of California came to market this week witha large offering that was well-received by buyers. JPMorgan Securities priced the state’s $1.25 billion of taxable general obligation high-speed passenger train bonds in three series. The deal was said to be well-received and several times oversubscribed.

The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-minus by S&P and Fitch.

RBC Capital Markets priced Houston, Texas’ $281.02 million of Series 2017B combined utility system first lien revenue refunding bonds.

The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA by Fitch.

Siebert Cisneros Shank priced the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York’s $345.9 million of Series 2017A dormitory facilities revenue bonds for institutions after a shortened retail order period.

The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s and A-plus by Fitch.

JPMorgan Securities priced the Geisinger Authority, Montour County, Pa.’s $349.27 million of Series 2017A-1 health system revenue bonds for the Geisinger Health System. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA by S&P.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the Geisinger Authority’s $236.57 million of Series 2017A-2 health system revenue bonds. That deal is also rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA by S&P.

Barclays Capital priced Pennsylvania State University’s $282.4 million of Series 2017A tax-exempt and Series 2017B taxable bonds. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA by S&P.

Wells Fargo Securities priced the Katy Independent School District, Texas’ $257.46 million of Series 2017 unlimited tax school building bonds. The deal, which is backed by the Permanent School Fund guarantee program, is rated triple-A by Moody’s and S&P.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the UAB Medicine Finance Authority, Ala.'s $180.85 million of Series 2017 B1 and B2 revenue bonds. The deal is rated A1 by Moody's and AA-minus by S&P.

Morgan Stanley priced the city of Cape Coral, Fla.’s $101.41 million of utility improvement refunding assessment bonds. The deal was insured by Assured Guaranty Municipal and is rated AA by S&P.

In the competitive arena, the Miami-Dade County School District, Fla., sold $250 million of Series 2017 unlimited tax general obligation school bonds. Morgan Stanley won the bonds with a true interest cost of 3.57%. The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s.

Henrico County, Va., competitively sold $102.26 million of Series 2017A unlimited tax GO public improvement bonds. Bank of America Merrill Lynch won the bonds with a TIC of 2.63%. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.

In the short-term sector, Wells Fargo Securities priced the Golden Empire Schools Financing Authority, Calif.’s $123.85 million of 2017 lease revenue refunding notes for the Kern High School District. The deal is rated MIG1 by Moody’s and SP1-plus by S&P.

The town of Gilbert, Ariz., sold $124.61 million of Series 2017 general obligation and GO refunding bonds. JPMorgan won the deal with a TIC of 2.33%. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s and Fitch and AA-plus by S&P.

Bond Buyer visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $513.8 million to $14.30 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $3.97 billion of competitive sales and $10.34 billion of negotiated deals.

Lipper: Muni bond funds see inflows
Investors in municipal bond funds continued to put cash back into the funds in the latest week, according to Lipper data released late on Thursday.

The weekly reporters saw $290.227 million of inflows in the week ended April 19, after inflows of $1.628 billion in the previous week.

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The four-week moving average was still in the green at positive $473.945 million, after being positive at $444.756 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 also had inflows, gaining $382.696 million in the latest week after rising $1.094 billion in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had inflows of $129.744 million after inflows of $505.697 million in the prior week.

National funds had inflows of $317.247 million after inflows of $1.699 billion in the previous week. High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $227.034 million in the latest reporting week, after inflows of $604.105 million the previous week.

Exchange traded funds saw inflows of $96.644 million, after inflows of $113.902 million in the previous week.

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