Munis weaken ahead of $7.4B slate

Top-quality municipal bonds were weaker at mid-session, according to traders who were looking ahead to the week’s $7.42 billion new issue slate, which will be dominated by big bond deals from New York City and Maryland.

Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose as much as one basis point from 1.81% on Friday, while the 30-year GO yield gained as much as two basis points from 2.65%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

The most actively traded muni bond at midday was the Florida Board of Education’s Series 2017B public education capital outlay refunding 5s of 2024, according to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA website.

The Florida BoE 4s were bought at a price of 122.711, a yield of 1.43%, in 26 trades totaling $67.3 million, the same price the bonds were at when they last traded on Sept. 5 in two trades totaling $200,000.

U.S. Treasuries were weaker on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.30% from 1.27% on Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.11% from 2.06% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.73% from 2.68%.

On Friday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 87.9%, compared with 87.9% on Thursday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 98.9% versus 99.5%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 28,312 trades on Friday on volume of $7.56 billion.

Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 56.54% of new issuance in the week ended Sept. 8, up from 55.92% in the previous week, according to Markit. General obligation bonds made up 36.94% of total issuance, down from 37.06%, while taxable bonds accounted for 6.52%, down from 7.02%.

BB-091217-MUN

Some of the most actively traded bonds by type were from California and Texas issuers.

In the GO bond sector, the California 4s of 2047 were traded 94 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Texas 4s of 2018 were traded 97 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the University of Texas 3.354s of 2047 were traded 33 times.

Primary market
This week’s calendar is composed of $4.99 billion of negotiated deals and $2.43 billion of competitive sales.

On Tuesday, Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. will price New York City’s $855.56 million of Fiscal 2018 Series B and Series 1 bonds on the first of a two-day retail order period ahead of the institutional pricing on Thursday.

The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

Also on Tuesday, Citigroup will price the Tennessee State School Bond Authority’s $402 million of Series 2017A and B tax-exempt and Series 2017C taxable higher educational facilities second program bonds.

The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.

RBC Capital Markets is expected to price the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency’s $125 million of Series 2017G non-AMT and Series 2017H taxable homeownership finance bonds issued under the mortgage-backed securities pass-through program on Tuesday.

The deal is rated Aaa by Moody’s.

Citi is set to price the state of Ohio’s $115 million of Series 2017A turnpike revenue refunding bonds.

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

In the competitive arena on Tuesday, the state of Louisiana will sell $302.71 million of Series 2017B general obligation bonds.

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

Prince George's County, Md., is selling $104 million of Series 2017 certificates of participation for the Regional Medical Center.

The COPs are rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P.

And the state of Michigan is selling $119.58 million of GOs in two separate sales. The deals consist of $79 million of Series 2017A tax-exempt GO environmental program and refunding bonds and $40.58 million of Series 2017B taxable GO environmental program bonds.

The deals are rated Aa1 by Moody’s, AA-minus by S&P and AA by Fitch.

On Wednesday, the Maryland Department of Transportation is competitively selling $500 million of Series 2017 second issue consolidated transportation bonds.

The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s, AAA by S&P and AA-plus by Fitch.

Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $843.8 million to $10.36 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $5.38 billion of competitive sales and $4.98 billion of negotiated deals.

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