A slim supply slate awaits municipal bond buyers ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s monetary policy meeting and quarter end wrapup.
Primary market
This week’s volume is estimated at $3.1 billion, consisting of $1.87 billion of negotiated deals and $1.26 billion of competitive sales.
In the competitive arena on Tuesday, Wisconsin is slated to competitively sell the biggest deal of the week when it offers $260.565 million of Series 2018B general obligation bonds.
Proceeds of the sale will be used for various governmental purposes.
Municipals officials are the financial advisors while Foley & Lardner is the bond counsel.
Greensboro, N.C., is selling $145.76 million of GO public improvement bonds consisting of $135.36 million of Series 2018B tax-exempts and $10.4 million of Series 2018A taxables.
Proceeds of the sale will be used to redeem certain outstanding BANs of the Issuer and to finance various capital improvements.
The financial advisors are DEC Associates with the Local Government Commission; the bond counsel is Womble Bond.
In the short-term competitive sector, Milwaukee will be selling $180 million of Series2018M10 school revenue anticipation notes.
The financial advisor is PFM Financial Advisors and the bond counsel are Katten Muchin and Hurtado Zimmerman.
The Palm Beach County School District is selling $115 million of Series 2018 tax anticipation notes.
The financial advisor is PFM Financial Advisors; the bond counsel is Greenberg Traurig.
In the negotiated sector on Tuesday, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch is set to price the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York’s $150 million of Series 2018A revenue bonds after a one-day retail order period.
PNC Capital Markets is set to price the Ohio Higher Educational Facilities Commission’s $113.735 million of Series 2018 hospital revenue bonds for the University Hospital Health System on Tuesday.
Raymond James & Associates is set to price the New Orleans Aviation Board’s $109.24 million of special facilities revenue bonds and refunding bonds on Tuesday.
Prior week's top underwriters
The top municipal bond underwriters of last week included Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Securities, Robert W. Bard & Co., and JPMorgan Securities, according to Thomson Reuters data.
In the week of Sept. 16 to Sept. 22, Citi underwrote $2.6 billion, BAML $1.4 billion, Wells $696.2 million, Robert W. Baird $318.3 million and JPMorgan $301.6 million.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $5.46B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar increased $26.2 million to $5.46 billion for Monday. The total is comprised of $2.0 billion of competitive sales and $3.46 billion of negotiated deals.
Secondary market
Municipal bonds were weaker on Monday, according to a midday read of the MBIS benchmark scale. Benchmark muni yields rose less than one basis point in the one- to 30-year maturities, except for the eight- and nine-year maturities where yields remained unchanged.
High-grade munis were also weaker, with yields calculated on MBIS' AAA scale rising less than one basis point in the one- to 30-year maturities, except for the eight- and nine-year maturities where yields remained unchanged.
Municipals were weaker on Municipal Market Data’s AAA benchmark scale, which showed the yield on both the 10-year muni general obligation and the yield on 30-year muni maturity rising as much as one basis point.
Treasury bonds were weaker as stock prices traded mixed.
On Friday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 84.4% while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 100.8%, according to MMD. The muni-to-Treasury ratio compares the yield of tax-exempt municipal bonds with the yield of taxable U.S. Treasury with comparable maturities. If the muni/Treasury ratio is above 100%, munis are yielding more than Treasury; if it is below 100%, munis are yielding less
Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 36,265 trades on Friday on volume of $9.76 billion.
California, New York and Texas were the municipalities with the most trades, with Golden State taking 15.103% of the market, the Empire State taking 12.168% and the Lone Star State taking 11.023%.
Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 56.65% of total new issuance in the week ended Sept. 21, down from 56.73% in the prior week, according to
Some of the most actively traded munis by type in the week were from Texas, California and Puerto Rico issuers.
In the GO bond sector, the Hidalgo County, Texas, 4s of 2043 traded 42 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Long Beach, Calif., 5s of 2020 traded 54 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Puerto Rico Government Development Bank 5s of 2023 traded 18 times.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
