Second surge: Municipal bond market set for $23B of new deals

The municipal bond market will see a second week of hefty bond volume, with almost $23 billion of new deals lining up for sale.

Buyers will see an estimated at $22.88 billion of supply in a calendar consisting of $19.54 billion of negotiated deals and $3.34 billion of competitive sales.

Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale was mixed in early trading.

The 10-year muni benchmark yield slipped to 2.260% on Monday from the final read of 2.261% on Friday, according to Municipal Bond Information Services. The MBIS 30-year benchmark muni yield increased to 2.712% from 2.709%.

The MBIS benchmark index is updated hourly on the Bond Buyer Data Workstation.

U.S. Treasuries were stronger on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury declined to 1.79% from 1.80%, the 10-year Treasury yield dipped to 2.37% from 2.38% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury decreased to 2.75% from 2.77%.

Top-rated municipal bonds finished weaker on Friday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose seven basis points to 1.95% from 1.88% on Thursday, while the 30-year GO yield gained seven basis points to 2.56% from 2.49%, according to the final read of MMD’s triple-A scale.

On Friday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 82.2% compared with 79.3% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 92.4% versus 89.8%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 41,552 trades on Friday on volume of $16.61 billion.

Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 55.93% of new issuance in the week ended Dec. 8, down from 55.98% in the previous week, according to Markit. General obligation bonds made up 38.20% of total issuance, down from 38.83%, while taxable bonds accounted for 5.87%, up from 5.19% a week earlier.

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Some of the most actively traded bonds by type were from New York, Florida and New Jersey issuers.

In the GO bond sector, the New York City 4s of 2034 were traded 57 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Florida Development Finance Corp. 5.625s of 2047 were traded 116 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority 3.729s of 2036 were traded 37 times.

Previous week's top underwriters
The top municipal bond underwriters of last week included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Securities, Stifel, Wells Fargo Securities and RBC Capital Markets, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In the week of Dec. 3 to Dec. 9, BAML underwrote $2.30 billion, JPMorgan $2.15 billion, Stifel $2.05 billion, Wells $1.85 billion, and RBC $1.66 billion.

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Primary market
Action kicks off Monday in the competitive arena as Connecticut sells $850 million of bonds and notes in two offerings.

Up for bid are the state’s $450 million of Series 2017A taxable general obligation bonds and the state’s $400 million of Series 2017A GO bond anticipation notes.

The bonds are rated A1 by Moody’s Investors Service and A-plus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings while the notes are rated MIG1 by Moody’s, SP1-plus by S&P and F1-plus by Fitch.

Also Monday, Howard County, Md., is selling $238.9 million of bonds in two offerings, consisting of $182.74 million of Series 107D consolidated public improvement refunding bonds and $56.16 million of Series 2017E metropolitan district refunding bonds.

Both deals are rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.

In the negotiate sector on Monday, Morgan Stanley is expected to price Nassau County, N.Y.’s $573.89 million of 2017 refunding Series C GO improvement bonds.

The deal is rated A2 by Moody’s and A-plus by S&P.

JPMorgan Securities is expected to price the Phoenix Civic Improvement Corp.’s $469.09 million of Series 2017D junior lien airport revenue refunding bonds.

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

Morgan Stanley is expected to price the Board of Governors of the Colorado State University System’s $294.14 million of system enterprise revenue bonds.

Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $23.47B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $1.51 billion to $23.47 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $4.48 billion of competitive sales and $18.99 billion of negotiated deals.

Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the 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.

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Primary bond market Secondary bond market State of Connecticut
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