Munis strong as Honolulu deal set

Top-quality municipal bonds were stronger at midday as buyers look ahead to the big Honolulu sale set to hit the screens on Wednesday.

Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation fell as much as two basis points from 1.85% on Tuesday, while the 30-year GO yield dropped as much as one basis point from 2.68%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

U.S. Treasuries were narrowly mixed on Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury was flat from 1.29% on Tuesday, the 10-year Treasury yield dipped to 2.06% from 2.07% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.68% from 2.69%.

On Tuesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 89.2%, compared with 87.2% on Friday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 99.6% versus 97.9%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 35,044 trades on Tuesday on volume of $7.95 billion.

Primary Market
Volume for the week is estimated at $3.86 billion, consisting of $3.03 billion of negotiated deals and $828.2 million of competitive sales.

On Wednesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is expected to price the city and county of Honolulu’s $350 million of Series 2017H general obligation floating-rate bonds for the Honolulu rail transit project.

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

Since 2007, Honolulu has issued $7.08 billion of securities, with the most issuance taking place in 2015 when it sold $1.59 billion. It did not come to market in 2013 or 2014.

BB-090717-MUN

In the competitive arena on Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Higher Educational Facilities Authority will sell almost $129 million of state system higher education refunding and refunding revenue bonds in three separate offerings later in the afternoon.

The sales consist of $77.51 million of Series AU-2 refunding revenue bonds, $36.18 million of Series AU-1 revenue bonds and $15.11 million of Series AU-3 million taxable refunding revenue bonds.

The deals are rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA-minus by Fitch.

On Thursday, Morgan Stanley is expected to price the week's largest deal — the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s $595 million of motor vehicle surcharges subordinate revenue and taxable bonds.

The deal is rated Baa2 by Moody’s, but some of the bonds are expected to be insured by Build America Mutual.

Also on Thursday, Goldman Sachs is on the docket to price the Regents of the University of Texas’ $350 million of taxable system revenue bonds on Thursday following indications of interest on Wednesday.

The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P Global Ratings, and Fitch, and it is anticipated to come as a bullet maturity in 2047.

Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $466.2 million to $9.15 billion on Wednesday. The total is comprised of $5.35 billion of competitive sales and $3.80 billion of negotiated deals.

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