Municipal bonds were unchanged at mid-session as a $370 million bond deal for Duke University priced while the New Jersey Turnpike Authority was selling $750 million of municipal bonds in the primary.
Primary Market
Morgan Stanley priced the North Carolina Capital Facilities Finance Agency’s $370.87 million of Series 2015B revenue bonds for Duke University.
The issue was priced as 5s to yield 3.21% in 2041 and 3.56% in 2055. The deal was rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-plus by Standard & Poor’s.
Citigroup is set to price the turnpike’s $750 million of revenue bonds later in the day.
According to a pre-marketing scale, the bonds were being offered to yield from 3.60% with a 3.50% coupon and 3.22% with a 5% coupon in a split 2031 maturity to 4.06% with a 4% coupon and 3.71% with a 5% coupon in a split 2045 maturity.
The deal is rated A3 by Moody’s Investors Service, A-plus by Standard & Poor’s and A by Fitch Ratings.
Since 1995, NJTA has issued over $10 billion of debt. The authority sold its largest amount of bonds in 2009 and 2013, when it issued $2.5 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively. The NJTA did not sell any debt from 2006 through 2009 or in 2011.
RBC Capital Markets received the official award on the Tacoma School District No. 10, Pierce County, Wash.’s $368.28 million of Series 2015 unlimited tax general obligation and refunding bonds.
The issue was priced to yield from 0.19% and 0.35% with a 2% coupon in a split 2016 maturity to 3.19% with a 5% coupon in 2036; a 2039 maturity was priced as 5s to yield 3.30%. The bonds were backed by the Washington State School District Credit Enhancement Program and rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P.
Secondary Market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was steady from 2.02% on Wednesday, while the yield on the 30-year GO was unchanged from 3.06%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
Treasury prices were narrowly mixed on Thursday, with the yield on the two-year Treasury falling to 0.59% from 0.62% on Wednesday, while the 10-year yield rose to 2.04% from 2.02% and the 30-year yield increased to 2.88% from 2.87%.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated on Wednesday at 99.6% versus 96.6% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 106.7% compared to 104.7%, according to MMD.
Tax-Exempt Money Market Funds Post Outflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced outflows of $1.04 billion, bringing total net assets to $245.84 billion in the period ended Oct. 19, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an outflow of $64.8 million to $246.88 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 377 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds remained at 0.01% for the 129th straight week.
The total net assets of the 950 weekly reporting taxable money funds fell $1.07 billion to $2.477 trillion in the period ended Oct. 20, after an inflow of $12.52 billion to $2.479 trillion the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds remained at 0.02% for the 40th week in a row.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,327 weekly reporting money funds decreased $2.11 billion to $2.723 trillion in the period ended Oct.20, which followed an inflow of $12.46 billion to $2.725 trillion the week before.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 38,266 trades on Wednesday on volume of $10.28 billion.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar fell $1.48 billion to $8.22 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $1.80 billion competitive sales and $6.43 billion of negotiated deals.
