The Chicago Board of Education deal remains in the spotlight, with pricing expected shortly.
Munis were stronger on Wednesday at midday, as yields on some maturities were one to three basis points lower, according to traders.
Primary Market
As of press time, nothing official was released about the Chicago BOE deal, traders said.
JPMorgan, which is running the books, was treading cautiously after last week's delay and did not release a pre-marketing wire as it had last week. Price talk being circulated early Wednesday had the 2026 maturity at a yield of 7.75% with a coupon of 7 % and the 2044 maturity with an 8.50% rate and coupon of 7%. Other structural features, including a call, were not discussed.
"Like everyone else, I am waiting to see the official pricing, if it even comes," said a New York trader at midday.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced and then re-priced Hawaii County's $236.315 million of Series 2016 A, B, C, D E, and F taxable general obligation bonds.
The $99.935 million of series A bonds were priced to yield from 1.04% with a 5% coupon in 2020 to 2.94% with a 4% coupon in 2035.
The $27.02 million of series B refunding bonds were priced to yield from 0.67% with a 3% coupon in 2017 to 1.95% with a 4% coupon in 2026.
The $44.95 million of series C refunding bonds were priced to yield from 0.79% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 2.05% with a 5% coupon in 2027.
The $28.90 million of series D refunding bonds were priced to yield from 0.91% with a 5% coupon in 2019 to 2.13% with a 5% coupon in 2028.
The $25.465 million of series E refunding bonds were priced to yield from 1.04% with a 5% coupon in 2020 to 2.60% with a 2.5% coupon in 2029.
The $10.04 million of series F taxable bonds were priced at par to yield 1.20% in 2017, 1.30% in 2018 and 1.55% in 2019. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA-minus by Standard & Poor's.
In the competitive arena, the Florida State Board of Education sold $118.43 million of public education capital outlay refunding bonds to Wells Fargo at a true interest cost of 1.74%. The bonds were priced to yield from 0.45% with a 5% coupon in 2017 to 1.94% with a 5% coupon in 2028. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's and triple-A by both S&P and Fitch Ratings.
Secondary Market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was as much as two basis points lower from 1.68% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni yield was up to one basis point lower from 2.72%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
Treasuries were mostly stronger on Wednesday afternoon. The yield on the two-year Treasury was down to 0.71% from 0.75% on Tuesday, while the 10-year Treasury yield decreased to 1.85% from 1.86% and the 30-year Treasury bond yield was steady at 2.67%.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated on Tuesday at 90.3% compared to 87.7% on Monday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 101.7% versus 99.2%, according to MMD.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 38,996 trades on Tuesday on volume of $7.604 billion.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar fell $231.7 million to $10.00 billion on Wednesday. The total is comprised of $3.75 billion of competitive sales and $6.25 billion of negotiated deals.
Yvette Shields contributed to this report
