Munis weaken as `Washtubs' sell

Municipal bonds finished weaker on Thursday as issuers from Maryland and California sold over $1 billion of bonds by competitive bid.

Primary market
In the competitive arena, the Washington Suburban Sanitary District, Md., sold $678.01 million of consolidated public improvement bonds in two separate sales.

Citigroup won the $459.25 million of consolidated public improvement bonds of 2017 with a true interest cost of 3.2764%.

The issue was priced to yield from 0.95% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 3.30% with a 4% coupon in 2047.

Goldman Sachs won the $218.76 million of consolidated public improvement refunding bonds of 2017 with a TIC of 2.4543%. Pricing information was not available.

The so-called Washtub deals are rated triple-A by Moody’s Investors Service, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

The last time before Thursday the district competitively sold comparable bonds was in late 2016 when Bank of America Merrill Lynch won $381.81 million of consolidated public improvement refunding second series bonds of 2016 with a TIC of 3.5767%.

Since 2007, the district has sold over $4 billion of debt with the most issuance prior to Thursday’s sale being in 2015 when it sold $625.3 million. The district didn’t come to market at all in 2008.

BB-102717-MUN

The Santa Clara Unified School District, Calif., competitively sold $392.76 million of general obligation bonds in two separate sales.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch won the $232.3 million of Election of 2014 GOs with a TIC of 3.2604%.

The issue was priced to yield from 0.91% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 3.55% with a 3.50% coupon in 2042.

BAML also won the $160.46 million of Election of 2014 refunding GOs with a TIC of 2.9724%.

The issue was priced to yield from 0.91% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 3.25% with a 3% coupon in 2036.

Both deals are rated Aaa by Moody’s and AA by S&P.

In the negotiated sector, Raymond James & Associates priced the California State Public Works Board’s $189.04 million of Series 2017 F, G and H lease revenue refunding bonds.

The $56.66 million of Series 2017F Office of Emergency Services Los Angeles Regional Crime Laboratory bonds were priced as 5s to yield from 0.91% in 2018 to 2.69% in 2032.

The $50.33 million of Series 2017G various capital projects bonds were priced to yield from 0.96% with a 4% coupon in 2018 to 2.69% with a 5% coupon in 2032.

The $82.06 million of Series 2017H Department of Education’s Riverside Campus projects bonds were priced as 5s to yield from 0.91% in 2018 to 2.81% in 2034.

The deal is rated A1 by Moody’s and A-plus by S&P and Fitch.

Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose two basis points to 2.02% from 2.00% on Wednesday, while the 30-year GO yield gained two basis points to 2.84% from 2.82%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data`s triple-A scale.

U.S. Treasuries were weaker on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.63% from 1.62% on Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.45% from 2.44% and yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.96% from 2.95%.

On Thursday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 82.3% compared with 82.1% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 95.9% versus 95.6%, according to MMD.

AP-MBIS 10-year muni at 2.324%, 30-year at 2.902%
The Associated Press-MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale exhibited weakened on Thursday.

In late trading, the 10-year muni benchmark yield rose to 2.324% from the final read of 2.305% on Wednesday, according to Municipal Bond Information Services, a national consortium of municipal interdealer brokers. The AP-MBIS 30-year benchmark muni yield gained to 2.902% from 2.888% on Wednesday.

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 39,548 trades on Wednesday on volume of $10.67 billion.

Tax-exempt money market funds see inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $179.1 million, raising total net assets to $128.33 billion in the week ended Oct. 23, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

This followed an outflow of $450.3 million to $128.16 billion in the previous week.

The average, seven-day simple yield for the 207 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds rose to 0.46% from 0.44% the previous week.

The total net assets of the 832 weekly reporting taxable money funds increased $3.18 billion to $2.589 trillion in the week ended Oct. 24, after an inflow of $12.79 billion to $2.586 trillion the week before.

The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds was steady at 0.69% from the prior week.

Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,048 weekly reporting money funds increased $3.36 billion to $2.718 trillion in the week ended Oct. 24, after inflows of $12.34 million to $2.714 trillion in the prior week.

Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the AP-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 Municipal bond funds
MORE FROM BOND BUYER