Today's action included the two largest negotiated deals of the week, plus all six of the large competitive deals in what is living up to its billing as
the busiest week of the year.
“With the amount of issuance we have seen so far, it’s not even snuffing at the demand,” said one New York trader. “The market hasn’t even batted an eye and remains the same: deals come and go, while investors are getting very little in terms of allocations.”
Bank of America Securities priced the Massachusetts School Building Authority's (Aa3/AA/AA+) $715.420 million of subordinated dedicated sales tax taxable refunding bonds.
Citi priced the City of Phoenix Civic Improvement Corporation's (A1/A+/NR) $729.955 million of junior lien airport revenue alternative minimum tax and non-AMT bonds.
In the competitive arena, the State of Illinois (Baa3/BBB-/BBB) sold $750 million in three separate sales.
Barclays won $300 million of general obligation bonds with a true interest cost of 2.6058%.
Bank of America Securities won $300 million of GO bonds with a TIC of 3.5786%.
BofA also won $150 million of taxable GO bonds with a TIC of 3.8057%.
Since 2009, the Prairie State has sold roughly $37.17 billion of securities. The highest issuance year occurred in 2010 when the state sold $8.68 billion and the lowest occurred in 2015 when it did not come to market at all.
BofA also priced the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s (Baa1/BBB+/A-) $247.33 million of school facilities construction taxable refunding bonds.
The State of Ohio ( / /AA+) sold $249 million in two separate sales. UBS won $149 million of infrastructure improvement GO bonds with a TIC of 2.9042%.
Wells Fargo won $100 million of Third Frontier Research and Development GO taxable bonds with a TIC of 2.2149%.
The West Haymarket Joint Public Agency, Nebraska sold $125.4 million of GO facility taxable refunding bonds, which were won by Raymond James with a TIC of 2.9513%.
Wednesday’s bond sales
ICI: Muni funds see $1.6B inflow
Long-term municipal bond funds and exchange-traded funds saw a combined inflow of $1.665 billion in the week ended Oct. 30, the Investment Company Institute reported on Wednesday.
It was the 44th straight week of inflows into the tax-exempt mutual funds and followed an inflow of $2.144 billion in the previous week.
Long-term muni funds alone saw an inflow of $1.343 billion after an inflow of $1.864 billion in the previous week; ETF muni funds alone saw an inflow of $322 million after an inflow of $279 million in the prior week.
Taxable bond funds saw combined inflows of $9.635 billion in the latest reporting week after inflows of $8.275 billion in the previous week.
ICI said the total combined estimated inflows from all long-term mutual funds and ETFs were $3.427 billion after revised inflows of $4.814 billion in the prior week.
Secondary market
Munis were mixed on the MBIS benchmark scale, with yields rising by no more than two basis points in the 10-year maturity and falling less than two basis points in the 30-year maturity. High-grades were also mixed, with yields on MBIS AAA scale rising by less than one basis point in the 10-year maturity and falling by five basis points in the 30-year maturity.
On Refinitiv Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale, the yield on both the 10- and 30-year GO were steady at 1.52% and 2.13%, respectively.
The 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 83.7% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 92.6%, according to MMD.
Treasuries were mostly trading lower, while stocks were mixed with the S&P500 was the only index in the green. The Treasury three-month was up and yielding 1.562%, the two-year was down and yielding 1.605%, the five-year was down and yielding 1.626%, the 10-year was down and yielding 1.819% and the 30-year was down and yielding 2.300%.
Previous session's activity
The MSRB reported 33,788 trades Tuesday on volume of $10.17 billion. The 30-day average trade summary showed on a par amount basis of $10.64 million that customers bought $5.89 million, customers sold $2.87 million and interdealer trades totaled $1.87 million.
California, New York and Texas were most traded, with the Golden State taking 14.501% of the market, the Empire State taking 12.542% and the Lone Star State taking 11.142%.
The most actively traded securities were the Broward County, Fla., taxable revenue 3.477s of 2043, which traded 13 times on volume of $47.365 million.
Treasury auction
The Treasury Department auctioned $27 billion of 10-year notes with a 1 3/4% coupon at a 1.809% high yield, a price of 99.462502.
The bid-to-cover ratio was 2.49.
Tenders at the high yield were allotted 45.79%. All competitive tenders at lower yields were accepted in full.
The median yield was 1.770%. The low yield was 0.880%.
Gary E. Siegel contributed to this report.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
