Munis mixed ahead of deals

Top-quality municipal bonds were mixed at mid-session, according to traders, as the market prepared for this week’s $6.7 billion new issue calendar.

Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was unchanged from 1.88% on Thursday, while the 30-year GO yield increased as much as one basis point from 2.73%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

Treasuries were weaker on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.30% from 1.29% on Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.21% from 2.19% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.80% from 2.79%.

On Friday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 86.0%, compared with 85.1% on Thursday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 98.0% versus 97.3%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 29,470 trades on Friday on volume of $7.74 billion.

Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 56.48% of new issuance in the week ended Aug. 11, up from 55.91% in the previous week, according to Markit.

General obligation bonds made up 37.02% of total issuance, down from 37.36%, while taxable bonds accounted for 6.50%, down from 6.73%.

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Some of the most actively traded bonds by type were from Massachusetts and Ohio issuers.

In the GO bond sector, the Massachusetts 2s of 2018 were traded 85 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Ohio 3.25s of 2035 were traded 62 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Ohio 3.7s of 2043 were traded 39 times.

Previous week's top underwriters
The top negotiated and competitive municipal bond underwriters of last week included JPMorgan Securities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In the week of Aug. 6 to Aug. 12, JPMorgan underwrote $1.74 billion, BAML $1.18 billion, Citi $740.8 million, Goldman Sachs $693.4 million, and Morgan Stanley $555.4 million.

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Primary market
This week’s slate is composed of $4.3 billion of negotiated deals and $2.4 billion of competitive sales.

Action kicks off Tuesday in the competitive arena when Mecklenburg County, N.C., sells $225 million of Series 2017A general obligation public improvement bonds.

The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s Investors Service, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

The University of Alabama Board of Trustees will competitively sell $199.36 million of general revenue bonds in three separate offerings.

The deals consist of $159.04 million of Series 2017B tax-exempts, $15.38 million of Series 2017A tax-exempts and $24.94 million of Series 2017C taxables.

The deals are rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA by S&P.

Hennepin County, Minn., will competitively sell $100 million of Series 2017C general obligation bonds.

In the negotiated sector, Bank of America Merrill Lynch will price for retail investors the city and county of Honolulu, Hawaii’s $411 million of general obligation bonds.

The issue is made up of tax-exempts, tax-exempt refundings, taxable refundings and taxable green bonds.

The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by Fitch.

Also on Tuesday, Citigroup is set to price the Kentucky State Property and Building Commission’s $233.5 million of Project No. 117 revenue and refunding bonds.

The issue is composed of taxable and tax-exempt.

The deal is rated A1 by Moody’s and A-plus by Fitch.

Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $366.5 million to $9.51 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $4.47 billion of competitive sales and $5.04 billion of negotiated deals.

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