Municipal market participants saw some deals reach the market, as top-shelf muni bond yields were slightly lower, according to traders.
Primary Market
On Thursday, Morgan Stanley won the state of Delaware's $225 million of general obligation bonds with a true interest cost of 2.80%. No other pricing information was immediately available. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody's, S&P and Fitch.
Since 2007, Delaware has sold about $3.29 billion of bonds, with the most issuance coming in 2009 when it offered $729 million. The First State did not come to market in 2012 or 2015.
PNC Capital Markets won the Miami-Dade County $176.93 million of transit system sales surtax revenue refunding bonds with a TIC of 3.66%. No other pricing information was immediately available. The deal is rated AA by S&P and Fitch.
The Port of Seattle competitively to sold $129.935 million of limited tax GO bonds. JPMorgan won the bid with a TIC of 3.55%. No other pricing information was immediately available. The deal is rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P and AA-minus by Fitch.
The Lancaster County School District, S.C., competitively sold $125 million of Series 2017 GOs. Bank of America Merrill Lynch won the bid with a TIC of 3.29%. The bonds were priced to yield from 0.85% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 3.53% with a 4% coupon in 2036. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA by S&P.
Secondary Market
Top-rated municipal bonds were slightly stronger on Thursday at midday. The 10-year benchmark muni general obligation yield was as many as two basis points lower from 2.37% on Wednesday, while the yield on the 30-year GO was as many as two basis points lower from 3.11%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
Treasuries were stronger on Thursday around midday. The yield on the two-year Treasury declined to 1.18% from 1.22% on Wednesday, while the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.38% from 2.41%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 3.02% from 3.03%.
On Wednesday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 98.1% compared to 97.7% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 102.5%, versus 102.4%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 43,781 trades on Wednesday on volume of $8.757 billion.
Tax-Exempt Money Market Fund Inflows
Tax-exempt money market funds experienced inflows of $356.8 million, bringing total net assets to $131.63 billion in the week ended Feb. 20, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. This followed an outflow of $539.1 million to $131.27 billion in the previous week.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 232 weekly reporting tax-exempt funds was unchanged from 0.22% in the previous week.
The total net assets of the 863 weekly reporting taxable money funds decreased $6.23 billion to $2.507 trillion in the week ended Feb. 21, after an inflow of $970.3 billion to $2.513 trillion the week before.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds was steady from 0.27% in the prior week.
Overall, the combined total net assets of the 1,095 weekly reporting money funds fell $5.87 billion to $2.639 trillion in the week ended Feb. 21, after inflows of $431.2 billion to $2.645 trillion in the prior week.
