Municipal bond traders were taking breather after week dominated by big issues hitting the market and ahead of the upcoming holiday-shortened trading week.
Friday's employment report for October came in weaker than expected, as non-farm payrolls rose 161,000 last month. Economists surveyed by IFR Markets had predicted a gain of 175,000 jobs. The October unemployment rate fell to 4.9% from 5.0%, in line with analysts' forecasts.
Secondary Market
U.S. Treasuries were narrowly mixed on Friday after the jobs report. The yield on the two-year was unchanged from 0.81% on Thursday, the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.80% from 1.82% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.58% from 2.61%.
Top-quality municipal bonds finished unchanged on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was flat from 1.70% on Wednesday, while the yield on the 30-year was steady from 2.53%, 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 93.9% compared to 94.7% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 97.3% versus 98.8%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 37,479 trades on Thursday on volume of $10.56 billion.
Week's Primary Market
The market saw a slew of new issues price during the week.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced Chicago's $1.02 billion of O'Hare airport senior lien revenue refunding bonds. The deal consisted of $27.41 million of Series 2016A bonds, subject to the alternative minimum tax, $463.19 million of Series 2016B non-AMT bonds, and $527.48 million of Series 2016C non-AMT bonds. The deal is rated A by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
BAML also priced the Illinois Finance Authority's $107.96 million of Series 2016A tax-exempt bonds for the Swedish Covenant Hospital. The deal is rated BBB by S&P and BBB-plus by Fitch.
In the competitive arena, the state of Illinois sold $480 million of Series of November 2016 general obligation bonds. BAML won the bonds with a true interest cost of 2.45%. The deal is rated Baa2 by Moody's Investors Service, BBB by S&P and BBB-plus by Fitch.
Citigroup priced the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's $587.75 million of consolidated bonds. The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody's and AA-minus by S&P and Fitch.
Goldman Sachs priced the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York's $404.17 million of Series 2016A tax-exempt and Series 2016B taxable revenue bonds for the New School. The DASNY deal is rated A3 by Moody's and A-minus by S&P.
Morgan Stanley priced the Phoenix Civic Improvement Corp.'s $225.33 million of Series 2016 junior lien wastewater system revenue refunding bonds. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA-plus by S&P.
JPMorgan Securities priced the Montana Facility Finance Authority's $141.05 million of Series 2016 hospital revenue bonds for the Benefis Health System Obligated Group. The deal is rated A-minus by S&P and A by Fitch.
Raymond James & Associates priced the Virginia Resource Authority's $146.77 million of Series 2016C infrastructure revenue bonds under the state's pooled financing program. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P.
RBC Capital Markets priced the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority's $170.88 million of housing mortgage finance program bonds in six series. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the South Carolina Jobs-Economic Development Authority's $101.53 million of Series 2016 hospital refunding revenue bonds for the Anmed Health project. The deal is rated A-plus by S&P and Fitch.
Back in the competitive arena, the Bellevue School District No. 405, Wash., sold $239.17 million of Series 2016 unlimited tax general obligation and refunding bonds. Citigroup won the bonds with a true interest cost of 2.32%. The deal, backed by the Washington State School District Credit Enhancement Program, is rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA-plus by S&P.
The state of Ohio sold $150 million of Series 2016B infrastructure improvement GO bonds. BAML won the bonds with a true interest cost of 2.99%. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.
The North Kansas City School District No. 74, Mo., sold $114 million of Series 2016B limited tax GO school improvement bonds under the Missouri Direct Deposit Program. Raymond James won the bonds with a TIC of 2.72%. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA-plus by S&P.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $1.42 million to $7.21 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $2.19 billion of competitive sales and $5.02 billion of negotiated deals.
Lipper: Muni Bond Funds See Outflows
Municipal bond funds reported that investor money once again made an about-face and left the market, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.
The weekly reporters saw $323.644 million of outflows in the week ended Nov. 2, after inflows of $334.917 million in the previous week.
The four-week moving average barely remained positive at $5.662 million after being in the green at $167.723 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 experienced outflows, losing $297.795 million in the latest week after inflows of $216.109 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had outflows of $35.461 million after inflows of $90.083 million in the prior week.
National funds had outflows of $264.054 million after inflows of $337.143 million in the previous week. High-yield muni funds reported outflows of $191.896 million in the latest reporting week, after inflows of $33.092 million the previous week.
Exchange traded funds saw inflows of $14.713 million, after inflows of $79.104 million in the previous week.
