Mid-week doldrums may have set in for some investors, but this hump day promises not to be boring, with a slew of deals expected to sell in the primary and the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes scheduled for release. The Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District's $462.56 million school building and refunding bonds are expected to keep institutional investors busy, but retail still has a chance to get in the game with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's $450 million power system revenue bonds' retail order period about to take off. Here is your playbook.
Primary
- Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District is expected to sell $462.56 million school building and refunding bonds, with JPMorgan as managing underwriter. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service.
- The retail order period for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's $450 million power system revenue bonds is scheduled to begin, and institutional sale is slated to start Thursday. RBC Capital Markets is the lead underwriter of the deal, and the bonds are rated Aa3 by Moody's, AA-minus by Standard & Poor's and AA-minus by Fitch Ratings.
- The Grand River Dam Authority of Oklahoma is scheduled to sell $314 million revenue bonds with JPMorgan as its lead underwriter. The bonds received an A-plus from S&P.
- Milwaukee is expected to sell $125 million revenue anticipation notes that earned ratings of MIG-1 from Moody's, SP1-plus from S&P and F1-plus from Fitch. The auction is scheduled for 11 a.m.
- McKinney, Texas, Independent School District is also selling $100.5 million school building and refunding bonds, with BOSC as its managing underwriter. The bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by S&P.
Secondary
The secondary market is quiet Wednesday morning with the four most actively traded Cusips according to EMMA are only trading in odd-lots.
Scales
- Data from Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale had not been posted by deadline.
- Treasuries strengthened on Wednesday morning with the two-year note's yield dropping by one basis point to 2.51% from Tuesday's market close. The 10-year's fell by two basis points to 2.34% and the 30-year by one basis point to 3.05%.
Economic Data
The Federal Open Market Committee minutes are expected to be released at 2 p.m. The market shrugged off the Sept. 17 FOMC meeting and forecast when the Fed raised its median estimate for the federal funds rate at the end of 2015 to 1.375% from their June prediction of 1.125%. It estimated the rate would be 3.75% at the end of 2017. The market stayed flat after the announcement. Traders did say there was a little more attention on the announcement after Friday's employment situation report showed nonfarm payrolls rose to 248,000, beating the market consensus of 215,000. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.95%, below analysts' predictions that it would come in at 6.1%.
