Municipal bond buyers saw some taxable supply hit the screens on Thursday as the recent yield rise slowed and traders' attention shifted to next week’s holiday-shortened week.
Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale is weaker in midday trading.
The 10-year muni benchmark yield rose to 2.354% on Thursday from the final read of 2.345% on Wednesday, according to
The MBIS benchmark index is updated hourly on the
Top-rated municipal bonds are mixed at mid-session. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was steady from 2.12% on Wednesday, while the 30-year GO yield gained as much as one basis point from 2.72%, according to a read of MMD’s triple-A scale.
U.S. Treasuries are little changed in midday activity. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.98% from 1.97% on Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield was unchanged from 2.56% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury increased to 2.90% from 2.89%.
On Wednesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 83.2% compared with 80.5% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 94.0% versus 91.5%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 46,686 trades on Wednesday on volume of $13.14 billion.
Primary market
RBC Capital Markets received the written award on the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority’s $412.0 million of Series 2018A taxable revenue bonds for the Plancon program.
The issue was priced at par to yield from 3.451% in 2027 to 3.781% in 2031 and 3.864% in 2038.
The deal is rated A1 by Moody’s Investors Service, A by S&P Global Ratings and A-plus by Fitch Ratings.
JPMorgan Securities received the official award on the Illinois Finance Authority’s $223.55 million of Series 2018 taxable revenue refunding bonds for the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
The issue was priced at par to yield from 3.498% in 2028 to 3.748% in 2034 and 3.944% in a 2047 term maturity with an average life of 26.278 years.
The deal is rated AA-minus by S&P and AA by Fitch.
JPMorgan is also set to price the Tomball Independent School District, Texas’ $137.59 million of Series 2018 unlimited tax school building bonds.
The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s and S&P.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $5.30B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $534.6 million to $5.30 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $2.25 billion of competitive sales and $3.05 billion of negotiated deals.
Tax-exempt money market funds saw inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $4.34 billion, bringing total net assets to $135.40 billion in the week ended Jan. 8, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.
This followed an inflow of $130.8 million to $131.06 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 199 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds dropped to 0.96% from 1.03% the previous week.
The total net assets of the 832 weekly reporting taxable money funds decreased $7.07 billion to $2.668 trillion in the week ended Jan. 9, after an inflow of $4.66 billion to $2.675 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds increased to 0.93% from 0.92% from the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,031 weekly reporting money funds decreased $2.73 billion to $2.803 trillion in the week ended Jan. 9, after inflows of $4.79 billion to $2.806 trillion in the prior week.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
