Munis weaken ahead of next week’s $9.2B new issue slate

Top-shelf municipal bonds were weaker at mid-session, according to traders, who were looking ahead to next week’s hefty new issue slate.

Ipreo estimates volume for the upcoming week at $9.29 billion, up from a revised total of $255.7 million this week, according to updated figures from Thomson Reuters. Next week’s calendar is composed of $7.94 billion of negotiated deals and $1.35 billion of competitive sales.

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Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose as much as two basis points from 2.03% on Thursday, while the 30-year GO yield increased as much as two basis points from 2.82%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

Treasuries were mixed on Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 1.39% from 1.40% on Thursday, the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 2.39% from 2.37% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.94% from 2.90%.

On Thursday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 85.7%, compared with 86.6% on Wednesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 97.1% versus 98.1%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 45,455 trades on Thursday on volume of $10.39 billion.

Week's actively traded issues
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week ended July 7 were from California, Pennsylvania and Illinois issuers, according to Markit.

In the GO bond sector, the California 6.5s of 2033 were traded 30 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority, Pa., 5s of 2042 were traded 42 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Illinois 5.1s of 2033 were traded 60 times.

Week's actively quoted issues
Illinois and Georgia names were among the most actively quoted bonds in the week ended July 7, according to Markit.

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On the bid side, the Illinois taxable 5.1s of 2033 were quoted by 122 unique dealers. On the ask side, the Georgia GO 3s of 2034 were quoted by 191 unique dealers. And among two-sided quotes, the Illinois taxable 5.1s of 2033 were quoted by 53 unique dealers.

Week’s primary market
There were only two deals of note on the calendar this week.

In the negotiated sector, Citigroup priced Denton, Texas’ $76.73 million of Series 2017 permanent improvement refunding bonds. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings.

In the competitive arena, Stamford, Conn., sold $30 million of general obligation bonds in two separate sales. Wells Fargo Securities won the $25 million of Issue of 2017 Series A GOs with a true interest cost of 2.68% and Wells also won the $5 million of Issue of 2017 Series B GOs with a TIC of 1.89%. The deals are rated AAA by S&P and Fitch Ratings.

Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $4.39 billion to $11.49 billion on Friday. The total is comprised of $2.67 billion of competitive sales and $8.82 billion of negotiated deals.

Lipper: Muni bond funds see outflows
Investors in municipal bond funds took cash out of the funds in the latest week, according to Lipper data. The weekly reporters saw $458.306 million of outflows in the week of July 5, after inflows of $496.355 million in the previous week.

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The four-week moving average turned negative at $114.416 million, after being in the green at $246.434 million in the previous week. A moving average is an analytical tool used to smooth out price changes by filtering out fluctuations.

Long-term muni bond funds had outflows of $305.061 million in the latest week after inflows of $347.179 million in the previous week. Intermediate-term funds had outflows of $106.962 million after inflows of $48.313 million in the prior week.

National funds had outflows of $402.531 million after inflows of $528.345 million in the previous week. High-yield muni funds reported outflows of $208.683 million in the latest reporting week, after inflows of $224.042 million the previous week.

Exchange traded funds saw inflows of $2.624 million, after inflows of $83.810 million in the previous week.

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