Municipal bond buyers will see more supply coming their way next week, with the District of Columbia headlining the new issue slate.
Ipreo forecasts weekly bond volume will hit $6.4 billion from a revised total of $6.1 billion this week, according to updated data from Refinitiv. The calendar is composed of $4.96 billion of negotiated deals and $1.4 billion of competitive sales.
Primary market
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is slated to price Washington, D.C.’s $941.48 million of general obligation bonds on Wednesday.
The bonds are rated AA-plus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
Goldman Sachs is expected to price the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York’s $845.05 million of Series 2019A tax-exempt and Series 2019B taxable and taxable green bonds on Tuesday.
The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-minus by S&P.
Citigroup is set to price Oregon’s $519 million of GOs on Wednesday, consisting of Series 2019A tax-exempts, Series 2019B taxable sustainability bonds, Series 2019C taxable bonds and Series 2019D tax-exempts.
The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.
In the competitive arena, Texas is selling $159.965 million of GO college student loan bonds subject to the alternative minimum tax on Tuesday.
The financial advisors are Hilltop Securities and YaCari Consultants; the bond counsel are McCall Parkhurst and Mahomes Bolden.
The deal is rated AAA by S&P.
The state of Delaware is selling $250 million of GOs on Wednesday.
The financial advisor is PFM Financial Advisors; the bond counsel is Saul Ewing Arnstein.
The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s and S&P.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $7.44B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $1.03 billion to $7.44 billion for Friday. The total is comprised of $1.97 billion of competitive sales and $5.47 billion of negotiated deals.
Lipper: Muni bond funds see inflows
Investors in municipal bond funds kept their confidence and put cash into them in the latest week, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.
The weekly reporters saw $1.149 billion of inflows in the week ended Feb. 6 after inflows of $1.064 billion in the previous week.
Exchange traded funds reported outflows of $378.137 million, after outflows of $239.027 million in the previous week. Ex-ETFs, muni funds saw inflows of $1.528 billion after inflows of $1.303 billion in the previous week.
The four-week moving average remained positive at $998.486 million, after being in the green at $1.099 billion 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 had inflows of $712.920 million in the latest week after inflows of $546.399 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had inflows of $604.747 million after inflows of $462.466 million in the prior week.
National funds had inflows of $1.013 billion after inflows of $802.305 million in the previous week. High-yield muni funds reported inflows of $296.447 million in the latest week, after inflows of $295.001 million the previous week.
Secondary market
Municipal bonds were stronger Friday, according to a midday read of the MBIS benchmark scale. Benchmark muni yields fell as much as four basis points in the one- to 30-year maturities.
High-grade munis were also stronger, with muni yields falling as much as five basis points across the curve.
Municipals were stronger on Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale, which showed the yield on both the 10-year muni general obligation and on 30-year muni maturity falling as much as two basis points.
Treasury bonds were stronger as stock prices traded lower.
On Thursday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 80.6% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 100.3%, according to MMD. The muni-to-Treasury ratio compares the yield of tax-exempt municipal bonds with the yield of taxable U.S. Treasury with comparable maturities. If the muni/Treasury ratio is above 100%, munis are yielding more than Treasury; if it is below 100%, munis are yielding less.
Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 44,195 trades on Thursday on volume of $18.34 billion.
California, New York and Texas were the municipalities with the most trades, with the Golden State taking 18.765% of the market, the Empire State taking 11.449% and the Lone Star State taking 10.628%.
Week's actively traded issues
Some of the most actively traded munis by type in the week ended Feb. 8 were from Puerto Rico and New York issuers, according to
In the GO bond sector, the Puerto Rico 5s of 2041 traded 19 times. In the revenue bond sector, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority 4s of 2020 traded 190 times. In the taxable bond sector, the Puerto Rico GDB Debt Recovery Authority 7.5s of 2040 traded 17 times.
Week's actively quoted issues
Puerto Rico, New Jersey and Illinois names were among the most actively quoted bonds in the week ended Feb. 8, according to Markit.
On the bid side, the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp. revenue 5.25s of 2041 were quoted by 89 unique dealers. On the ask side, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority revenue 4s of 2048 were quoted by 244 dealers. Among two-sided quotes, the Illinois taxable 5.1s of 2033 were quoted by 24 dealers.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
