Prices of top-rated municipal bonds were steady at mid-session, according to traders.
In the primary sector, the market on Monday was preparing for the start of the week's new supply led off by the University of California's big offering.
Secondary Market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was flat from 2.17% on Friday, while the yield on 30-year GO was unchanged from 3.02%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
Since Feb. 27, yields on the 10-year have risen by 15 basis points and yields on the 30-year are also up by 15 basis points.
Treasury prices were higher on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury note dropped to 0.70% from 0.72% on Friday, while the 10-year yield decreased to 2.20% from 2.24% and the 30-year yield declined to 2.79% from 2.83%.
On Friday, the 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 97.3% versus 99.4% on Thursday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 106.7% compared to 108.1%.
Primary Market
Volume is estimated at $12.440 billion, consisting of $10.420 billion of negotiated deals and $2.020 billion of competitive sales.
Leading the slate is the University of California's $2.8 billion offering in two separate deals. Barclays Capital is set to price the bonds for retail investors on Tuesday followed by the institutional pricing on Wednesday.
Also, the Rhode Island Tobacco Settlement Finance Corp. is slated to sell $600 million of asset-backed bonds, to be priced by Citigroup Global Markets on Tuesday. And the N.Y. Metropolitan Transportation Authority's $300 million of transportation revenue bonds are expected to be priced by Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Wednesday.
New York City will be selling $1 billion of general obligation bonds. RBC Capital Markets is scheduled to price $800 million of tax-exempt fixed-rate refunding bonds on Thursday. NYC also plans to sell $200 million of taxable fixed-rate bonds, consisting of $100 million of new money bonds and a conversion of around $100 million of VRDBs to fixed-rate on Thursday.
In the competitive arena, New York State will sell $320 million of tax-exempt and taxable GOs in two separate competitive sales on Tuesday and Boston will sell $270 million of general obligation and GO refunding bonds in two separate sales on Tuesday.
Bond Buyer Visible Supply
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $886.4 billion to $15.158 billion on Monday. The total is comprised of $3.406 billion competitive sales and $11.752 billion of negotiated deals.
MSRB Previous Session's Activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 30,990 trades on Friday on volume of $7.601 billion.
Most active on Friday, based on the number of trades, was the Iowa Higher Education Loan Authority's Series 2015 private college facilities revenue refunding 5s of 2037, which traded 263 times at an average price of par, with an average yield of 5%; (initial offering price of 100.00/initial offering yield of yield of 5%).
The Week's Top Traded Munis by Sector
Munis from issuers from California, Georgia and Iowa were the top traded bonds by market sector in the week ended March 6, according to data released by Markit.
Revenue bonds comprised 56.00% of new issuance in the week ended March 6, up from 53.72% in the week ended Feb. 27. GOs comprised 36.29% of total issuance, up from 36.25%, while taxables made up 7.71%, down from 10.03%.
In the GO bond sector, California 3s of 2029 were traded 78 times. In the revenue bond sector, the Atlanta water and wastewater 5s of 2040 were traded 99 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the Iowa special obligation 6.75s of 2034 were traded 39 times, according to Markit.
