Top-quality municipal bonds were stronger in early activity, according to traders who were preparing for another quiet day.
Supply will start to build a bit next week, as the market's highlight is few education deals on the holiday-shortened slate.
Barclays Capital is expected to price the Board of Regents of the Texas State University System's $570.83 million of Series 2017A revenue financing system revenue and refunding bonds next Thursday. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA by Fitch Ratings.
JPMorgan Securities is expected to price the Board of Regents of the University of North Texas' $214.92 million of Series 2017A revenue financing system refunding and improvement bonds. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by Fitch.
Barclays is set to price the Board of Regents of the University of North Texas' $164.99 million of Series 2017B taxable revenue financing and improvement bonds next Thursday. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by Fitch.
Wells Fargo Securities is set to price the University of Pittsburgh, Pa.'s $525 million of Series 2017A taxable university refunding bonds next Thursday. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA-plus by S&P Global Ratings.
Wells Fargo is also set to price the District of Columbia's $311.52 million of Series 2017 refunding revenue bonds for Georgetown University next Thursday. The deal is rated A2 by Moody's and A by S&P.
Pipe Jaffray is expected to price the El Paso Independent School District, Texas' $184.09 million of unlimited tax school building 17 bonds next Thursday. The deal is rated Aaa by Moody's.
Piper is also set to price the Ysleta Independent School District, Texas' $171.38 million of unlimited tax school building 17 general obligation bonds next Thursday. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P.
In the short-term competitive arena, Colorado is selling $375 million of Series 2016B education loan program tax and revenue anticipation notes next Thursday. The deal is rated MIG1 by Moody's and SP1-plus by S&P.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $1.03 billion to $8.79 billion for Thursday. The total is comprised of $1.44 billion of competitive sales and $7.35 billion of negotiated deals.
Secondary Market
The 10-year benchmark muni general obligation yield fell one to three basis points from 2.36% on Thursday, while the yield on the 30-year GO dropped one to three basis points from 3.08%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
U.S. Treasuries were stronger on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 1.24% from 1.26% on Wednesday, while the 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 2.49% from 2.51%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 3.08% from 3.09%.
On Wednesday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 94.1% compared with 93.1% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 99.8%, versus 99.0%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 42,028 trades on Wednesday on volume of $11.50 billion.
Tax-Exempt Money Market Fund Outflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced outflows of $172.6 million, bringing total net assets to $131.12 billion in the week ended Dec. 26, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an inflow of $690.2 million to $131.29 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 237 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds increased to 0.25% from 0.21% in the previous week.
The total net assets of the 861 weekly reporting taxable money funds increased $11.07 billion to $2.565 trillion in the week ended Dec. 27, after an outflow of $37.81 billion to $2.554 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds increased to 0.23% from 0.22% in the previous week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,098 weekly reporting money funds rose $10.90 billion to $2.696 trillion in the week ended Dec. 27 after outflows of $37.12 billion to $2.686 trillion in the prior week.
Over the past eight weeks, tax-exempt money market funds have seen mostly inflows, according to The Money Fund Report.
Although two of the past three weeks have seen outflows, the previous five weeks saw inflows -- the biggest of which came on Nov. 7 when funds saw a cash infusion of greater than $1 billion. As of Dec. 26, tax free assets totaled $131.12 billion for the year.
iMoneyNet has tracked taxable MMFs since 1975, tax-free funds since 1981, and non-U.S. money funds since 1999.
