Top-rated municipal bonds were weaker at mid-session, traders said, as the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority offered almost $600 million of green bonds to retail buyers.
Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose as much as one basis point from 1.89% on Friday, while the 30-year GO yield gained as much as one basis point from 2.76%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
U.S. Treasuries were also weaker on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.39% from 1.38% on Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.23% from 2.20% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.79% from 2.77%.
On Friday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 85.8%, compared with 85.6% on Thursday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 99.5% versus 99.3%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 33,179 trades on Friday on volume of $9.69 billion.
Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 55.98% of new issuance in the week ended Sept. 15, down from 56.54% in the previous week, according to
Some of the most actively traded bonds by type in the week were from California, New Jersey and Texas issuers.
In the GO bond sector, the Marin County Healthcare District, Calif., 4s of 2043 were traded 43 times. In the revenue bond sector, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority 3.375s of 2030 were traded 57 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the University of Texas 3.354s of 2047 were traded 33 times.
Previous week's top underwriters
The top municipal bond underwriters of last week included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, RBC Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley and Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co., according to Thomson Reuters data.
In the week of Sept. 10 to Sept. 16, BAML underwrote $1.19 billion, Citi $1.15 billion, RBC $825.5 million, Morgan Stanley $702.0 million, and SCSCO $590.9 million.
Primary market
Volume for the week is estimated at $4.72 billion, consisting of $3.71 billion of negotiated deals and $1.01 billion of competitive sales.
Most of the week’s deals are clustered into the two days — Tuesday and Thursday — that border the Federal Open Market Committee’s monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. While many analysts expect the Federal Reserve to take no action at this week’s meeting, the municipal bond market traditionally uses caution as its byword.
On Monday, Citigroup priced the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $598.31 million of Series 2017B climate bond certified transportation revenue refunding green bonds for retail investors ahead of institutional pricing on Tuesday. The size of the offering was increased from the originally anticipated $500 million.
The issue was priced to yield from 1.25% with 4% and 5% coupons in a split 2021 maturity to 2.41% with a 5% coupon in 2028.
The deal is rated A1 by Moody’s Investors Service and A-minus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings and AA-plus by Kroll Bond Rating Agency.
Despite the short maturity structure, MMD Senior Market Analyst Randy Smolik said that New York names still were trading a little soft out long on the curve.“[The (Aa1/AAA) $3 million NYC TFA (c 27) 5s of 8/2036 were sold at 2.67% (+26 basis points) versus TFA sales in 2033 on Friday at +25 basis points,” he wrote in a Monday market comment.
Also on Monday, Citi expected to price Anchorage, Alaska’s $169 million of tax-exempt Series 2017B water Series 2017B wastewater and taxable Series 2017V wastewater revenue refunding bonds for retail investors ahead of the institutional pricing on Tuesday.
The deal is rated AA by S&P and Fitch.
On Tuesday, Barclays Capital set to price the Regents of the University of California’s $854 million of Series 2017M tax-exempt and Series 2017N taxable limited project revenue bonds.
The deal is rated A3 by Moody’s, A-minus by S&P and A by Fitch.
Goldman Sachs is set to price Ohio’s $342 million of general obligation highway capital improvement bonds on Tuesday.
The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s, AAA by S&P and AA-plus by Fitch.
Ziegler is expected to price the Mayor and Council of Rockville Economic Development Inc., Md.’s $240 million of Series 2017 revenue and revenue refunding bonds for the Ingleside at King Farm project.
The deal is rated BB by Fitch, which assigns the credit a stable outlook.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is set to price the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s $157 million of Series 2017 wastewater improvement refunding revenue bonds on Tuesday.
The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P.
Bond Buyer reports 30-day visible supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $78.2 million to $9.58 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $4.28 billion of competitive sales and $5.30 billion of negotiated deals.
