Top-quality municipal bonds were slightly stronger in early activity, traders said, as the bond market was winding down for the week.
The last of the larger deals were set to be priced a day after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to keep the fed funds rate target at 0.5% to 0.75%.
Secondary Market
The 10-year benchmark muni general obligation yield was as much as one basis point lower from 2.34% on Wednesday, while the yield on the 30-year GO was as much as one basis point lower from 3.09%, according to a read of Municipal Market
U.S. Treasuries were also stronger on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 1.19% from 1.21% on Wednesday, while the 10-year Treasury dropped to 2.44% from 2.47%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond declined to 3.05% from 3.07%.
On Wednesday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 94.7% compared to 94.7% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 100.4%, versus 100.9%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 46,025 trades on Wednesday on volume of $15.65 billion.
Primary Market
In the competitive arena, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan. is selling $103.925 million of securities in four separate competitive issues.
The offerings consist of $62.44 million Series 2017I municipal temporary notes, $22.25 million of Series 2017A unlimited tax general obligation improvement bonds, $14.395 million of Series 2017C GO refunding bonds and $4.84 million of Series 2017B taxable GO improvement bonds.
The bonds are rated AA by S&P Global Ratings and the notes are rated SP1-plus by S&P.
Since 2007, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City has issued about $1.76 billion of debt, with the largest issuance occurring in 2010 when it sold roughly $325 million of debt.
It came to market with just $34.7 million in 2013, one of four times it came with less than $100 million during the same period of time.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $1.29 billion to $7.45 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $1.89 billion of competitive sales and $5.55 billion of negotiated deals.
Tax-Exempt Money Market Fund Inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced outflows of $797 million, bringing total net assets to $130.51 billion in the week ended Jan. 30, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an inflow of $488.2 million to $131.30 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 233 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds were unchanged from 0.23% in the previous week.
The total net assets of the 863 weekly reporting taxable money funds decreased $4.04 billion to $2.519 trillion in the week ended Jan. 31, after an inflow of $17.03 billion to $2.523 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds increased to 0.27% from 0.26% the week prior.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,099 weekly reporting money funds fell $4.84 billion to $2.650 trillion in the week ended Jan. 31 after inflows of $17.52 billion to $2.654 trillion in the prior week.
