Top-rated municipal bonds finished unchanged on Monday, according to traders, as California’s $2.5 billion general obligation bond deal was priced for retail investors.
Primary market
This week’s $6.87 billion new issue calendar is composed of $5.77 billion of negotiated deals and $1.10 billion of competitive sales.
On Monday, Goldman Sachs priced California’s $2.51 billion of various purpose GO and refunding GOs for retail investors ahead of the institutional pricing on Tuesday.
The $788.82 million of various purpose GOs were priced for retail to yield from 1.09% with a 4% coupon in 2021 to 2.23% with a 5% coupon in 2028 and to yield 2.50% with a 5% coupon in 2031. A split half of a 2032 maturity was priced as 4s to yield 2.86% and the split half of a 2047 maturity was priced as 4s to yield 3.31%. No retail orders were taken in the 2035 or the other halves of the 2032 or 2047 maturities.
The $1.72 billion of various purpose refunding GOs were priced for retail to yield from 0.77% with a 4% coupon in 2018 to 2.75% with a 4% coupon in the split half of a 2031 maturity; a split half of a 2036 maturity was priced as 4s to yield 3.09% and the split half of a 2037 maturity was priced as 4s to yield 3.12%.
No retail orders were taken in the 2032 maturity to 2035 or the other halves of the 2031, 2036 and 2037 maturities.
The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-minus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is expected to price the Illinois Finance Authority’s $558 million of Series 2017 revolving fund revenue bonds under the state of Illinois' clean water initiative.
The deal is rated AAA by S&P and Fitch.
On Tuesday, BAML is expected to price the Oregon Department of Housing and Community Services’ $107 million of single-family mortgage revenue bonds.
The deal, which consists of Series 2017D bonds not subject to the alternative minimum tax and Series 2017E AMT bonds, is rated Aa2 by Moody’s.
In the competitive arena on Tuesday, Prince George’s County, Md., is selling $480.85 million of GOs in two separate offerings.
The sales consist of $366.46 million of Series 2017A GO consolidated public improvement bonds and $114.39 million of Series 2017B GO consolidated public improvement refunding bonds.
The deals are rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.
Beaumont, Texas, is selling $113.94 million of Series 2017 unlimited tax refunding bonds.
The deal is backed by the Permanent School Fund guarantee program.
Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 55.53% of new issuance in the week ended Aug. 18, down from 56.01% in the previous week, according to
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week were from California, Texas and New Jersey issuers.
In the GO bond sector, the California 5s of 2039 were traded 27 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Texas 4s of 2018 were traded 371 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Bergen County Improvement Authority, N.J., 2.25s of 2019 were traded 24 times.
Previous week's top underwriters
The top municipal bond underwriters of last week included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray, Citigroup, Wells Fargo Securities, and Morgan Stanley, according to Thomson Reuters data.
In the week of Aug. 20 to Aug. 26, BAML underwrote $558.3 million, Piper Jaffray $536.4 million, Citi $504.1 million, Wells Fargo $426.1 million, and Morgan Stanley $381.9 million.
Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was unchanged from 1.88% on Friday, while the 30-year GO yield was steady from 2.73%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
Treasuries were little changed on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury was flat from 1.33% on Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield dipped to 2.16% from 2.17% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was unchanged from 2.75%.
The 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 87.2% on Monday, compared with 86.7% on Thursday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 99.3% versus 99.2%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 28,491 trades on Friday on volume of $6.72 billion.
