Top-quality municipal bonds were weaker at mid-session as the last of the week’s larger sales came to market in the primary sector.
Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose as much as two basis points from 1.84% on Wednesday, while the 30-year GO yield increased as much as two basis points from 2.69%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
Treasuries were mostly weaker on Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.36% from 1.34% on Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.16% from 2.14% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was unchanged from 2.78%.
On Wednesday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 86.1%, compared with 85.2% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 96.7% versus 95.4%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 41,426 trades on Wednesday on volume of $11.44 billion.
Primary market
Morgan Stanley priced the state of Mississippi’s $443.72 million of Series 2017A general obligation bonds.
The issue was priced to yield from 1.06% with a 2% coupon in 2019 to 3.23% with a 4% coupon in 2036. The 2018 maturity was offered as a sealed bid.
The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
Since 2007, Mississippi has sold about $5.87 billion of securities with the most issuance occurring in 2015 when it sold $1.21 billion.
The Magnolia State saw a low year of issuance in 2014 when it sold just $7 million. With Thursday’s sale, the state surpasses last year’s sale total.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is expected to price the Hawaiian Electric Co. and its subsidiaries’ $265 million of special purpose revenue refunding bonds via the Department of Budget and Finance of the state of Hawaii.
The deal is rated Baa2 by Moody’s and A-minus by Fitch.
Citigroup is set to price the city of Long Beach, Calif.’s $172 million of harbor revenue bonds. The deal is rated AA by S&P and Fitch.
In the competitive arena on Thursday, the Rock Hill School District No. 3 of York County, S.C., sold $100 million of Series 2017B GOs.
Morgan Stanley won the bonds with a true interest cost of 2.95%. Pricing information was not immediately available. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA by S&P.
Market sources said Goldman Sachs probably will price the Wisconsin Public Finance Authority’s $1.1 billion of revenue bonds for the American Dream development project in East Rutherford, N.J., early next week.
The issue consists of $800 million of limited obligation PILOT revenue bonds and $300 million of limited obligation grant revenue bonds.
The unrated deal is expected to see good demand from institutions looking for high-yielding muni paper in New Jersey.
Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $230.9 million to $13.11 billion on Thursday. The total is comprised of $5.70 billion of competitive sales and $7.41 billion of negotiated deals.
Tax-exempt money market funds see outflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced outflows of $764.1 million, bringing total net assets to $129.67 billion in the week ended June 12, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an inflow of $1.1 million to $130.44 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 232 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds declined to 0.30% from 0.31% in the previous week.
The total net assets of the 851 weekly reporting taxable money funds decreased $5.24 billion to $2.496 trillion in the week ended June 13, after an inflow of $3.51 billion to $2.501 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds increased to 0.49% from 0.47% in the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,083 weekly reporting money funds decreased $6.01 billion to $2.626 trillion in the week ended June 13, after inflows of $4.61 billion to $2.632 trillion in the prior week.