Top-quality municipal bonds were slightly stronger at mid-session, traders said, as the bond market was winding down for the week.
The last of the larger deals came to market 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 narrowly mixed on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury dipped to 1.20% from 1.21% on Wednesday, while the 10-year Treasury dropped to 2.46% from 2.47%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was unchanged 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., sold $103.925 million of securities in four separate competitive issues.
JPMorgan Securities won the $62.44 million Series 2017I municipal temporary notes with a true interest cost of 1.15%.
Robert W. Baird won the $22.25 million of Series 2017A unlimited tax general obligation improvement bonds with a TIC of 3.24%.
JPMorgan won the $14.395 million of Series 2017C GO refunding bonds with a TIC of 2.595%.
PNC Capital Markets won the $4.84 million of Series 2017B taxable GO improvement bonds with a TIC of 3.52%.
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.
Raymond James priced the Aldine Independent School District, Texas' $101.01 million of Series 2017 unlimited tax refunding bonds.
The issue was priced to yield from 0.93% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 3.39% with a 4% coupon in 2033.
The deal, which is backed by the Permanent School Fund guarantee program, is rated triple-A by Moody's Investors Service and S&P.
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.
