Top-rated municipal bonds finished unchanged on Thursday, traders said, as the primary market wound down, with only a few larger-sized deals still left to sell.
Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was steady from 1.88% on Wednesday, while the 30-year GO yield was flat from 2.73%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
Treasuries were weaker on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.33% from 1.31% on Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.19% from 2.17% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.77% from 2.75%.
The 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 85.8% on Thursday, compared with 86.5% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 98.6% versus 99.2%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 37,460 trades on Wednesday on volume of $11.41 billion.
Primary market
Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced and repriced the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Authority’s $206.97 million of single-family mortgage revenue bonds, consisting of Series 2017-124A subject to the alternative minimum tax and Series 2017-124B non-AMT.
The $81.965 million of AMT bonds Series 2017-124A bonds were repriced at par to yield from 1.00% and 1.10% in a split 2018 maturity to 2.30% and 2.35% in a split 2023 maturity. A term bond in 2038 was repriced to yield 1.90% with a 4% coupon.
The $125 million of non-AMT Series 2017-124B bonds were repriced at par to yield from 2.10% and 2.20% in a split 2025 maturity to 2.65% and 2.75% in a split 2028 maturity. A term bond in 2032 was repriced at par to yield 3.20%, a term bond in 2037 was repriced at par to yield 3.50% and a term bond in 2042 was repriced to yield 3.65%.
The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings.
Since 2007, the Pa. HFA has sold $4.77 billion of securities, with the most issuance occurring in 2007 when it sold $799 million. The agency issued the least amount of debt in 2014 when it sold $16 million. With Thursday’s sale, 2017 will become the second highest issuance year of the last decade.
Robert W. Baird priced Alexandria, Va.’s $101.96 million of general obligation refunding bonds.
The bonds were priced to yield from 0.85% with a 5% coupon in 2019 to 2.958% with a 4% coupon in 2032.
The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s and S&P.
Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $1.07 billion to $9.16 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $2.91 billion of competitive sales and $6.25 billion of negotiated deals.
Tax-exempt money market funds see outflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced outflows of $203 million, bringing total net assets to $130.17 billion in the week ended Aug. 21, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.
This followed an outflow of $355.4 million to $130.37 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 231 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds was unchanged at 0.33% from the previous week.
The total net assets of the 850 weekly reporting taxable money funds increased $25.64 billion to $2.568 trillion in the week ended Aug. 22, after an inflow of $14.86 billion to $2.543 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds remained at 0.67% from the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,081 weekly reporting money funds increased $25.4 billion to $2.698 trillion in the week ended Aug. 22, after inflows of $14.51 million to $2.673 trillion in the prior week.
