Municipals end weaker ahead of $8.3B of new issue volume

Municipal bonds ended weaker on Monday, according to traders, who were awaiting the start of the week’s $8.26 billion new issue slate. The calendar is composed of $6.51 billion of negotiated deals and $1.75 billion of competitive sales.

Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose four basis points to 2.09% from 2.05% on Friday, while the 30-year GO yield gained five basis points to 2.95% from 2.90%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

U.S. Treasuries were weaker on Monday after the recent flight-to-quality trade unwound after the results of the French presidential election eased worries about a far-right win.

The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.23% from 1.18% on Friday, while the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.27% from 2.23%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.92% from 2.89%.

The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 91.9% on Monday, compared with 92.0% on Friday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 100.7%, versus 100.4%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 37,707 trades on Friday on volume of $9.48 billion.

Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 57.32% of new issuance in the week ended April 21, down from 57.98% in the previous week, according to Markit. General obligation bonds comprised 36.53% of total issuance, unchanged from 36.53%, while taxable bonds made up 6.15%, up from 5.49%.

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Some of the most actively traded issues by type were from California and Pennsylvania.

In the GO bond sector, the California 3.5s of 2027 were traded 23 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Geisinger Authority, Pa., 4s of 2047 were traded 36 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Riverside County Public Financing Authority, Calif., 4s of 2040 were traded 15 times.

Previous week's top underwriters
The top negotiated and competitive underwriters of last week included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Securities, RBC Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley and Raymond James, according to Thomson Reuters data.

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In the week of April 16 to April 22, BAML underwrote $1.6 billion, JPMorgan $1.23 billion, RBC $736.9 million, Morgan Stanley $398.1 million and Raymond James $323.7 million.

Primary market
Kaiser Pemanente is coming to market with two separate issues totaling nearly $4 billion. One is a corporate CUSIP taxable deal for $2 billion slated to be priced by Goldman Sachs on Tuesday or Wednesday. The other is a $1.9 billion offering issued through the California Health Facilities Financing Authority to be priced by Goldman on Tuesday.

Both deals are rated AA-minus by S&P Global Ratings and A-plus by Fitch Ratings.

Several other big deals will hit the market this week as well.

Wells Fargo Securities is set to price the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s $994.74 million of consolidated bonds on Tuesday for retail investors ahead of the institutional pricing on Wednesday. The deal consists of 201st Series taxables and 202nd Series bonds subject to the alternative minimum tax.

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

Stifel is expected to price the Chino Valley Unified School District, Calif.’s $262 million of Series 2017A election of 2016 general obligation bonds on Tuesday.

The deal is rated AA2 by Moody’s and AA-minus by S&P.

Siebert Cisneros Shank is set to price Atlanta’s $226.82 million of Series 2017A water and wastewater revenue refunding bonds on Tuesday.

The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s, AA-minus by S&P and A-plus by Fitch.

In the competitive arena on Tuesday, Rhode Island will sell $158.95 million of Series A consolidated capital development loan of 2017 general obligation bonds.

The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s.

The Hayward Unified School District, Calif., is selling $134 million of Series 2017 election of 2014 GOs.

The deal is rated A-plus by S&P and AAA by Fitch.

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