New York traders on Monday were looking over the retail pricing of the big New York City Transitional Finance Authority negotiated deal ahead of the institutional pricing on Tuesday. Municipal bonds finished unchanged in quiet trading as the Passover holiday kept price action muted.
Primary market
Headlining this week’s new issue slate is $1.1 billion of negotiated and competitive bond offerings from the NYC TFA.
On Monday, RBC Capital Markets held the last of its two-day retail order period on the TFA’s $840 million of future tax secured subordinated bonds ahead of the institutional pricing.
The $800 million of Fiscal 2017 Series E Subseries E-1 tax-exempt bonds were priced for retail on Monday to yield from 1.18% with a 4% coupon in 2020 to 3.712% with a 3.625% coupon in 2045. No retail orders were taken in the 2032, 2035-2036, 2039 or 2041-2043 maturities. A 2019 maturity was offered as sealed bid.
The $40 million of Fiscal 1999 Series A Subseries A-2 tax-exempt bonds were priced for retail on Monday as a remarketing to yield 1.15% with 3%, 4% and 5% coupon in a triple-split 2019 maturity.
The bonds are rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AAA by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
On Tuesday, the TFA will competitively sell $300 million of taxable bonds in two separate sales consisting of $234.21 million of future tax secured subordinate bonds, Fiscal 2017, Subseries E-2, and $65.79 million of future tax secured subordinate bonds, Fiscal 2017, Subseries E-3.
Most of the rest of week’s action is jammed into two-days – Tuesday and Wednesday – ahead of the full market close on Friday. The calendar totals $5.69 billion.
On Tuesday, JPMorgan Securities is slated to price Energy Northwest’s $592 million of electric revenue refunding tax-exempt and taxable bonds. The offering is comprised of Series 2017A Project 1 bonds, Series 2017A Columbia Generating Station bonds, Series 2017A Project 3 bonds, Series 2017B Project 1 taxable bonds, Series 2017B Columbia Generating Station taxable bonds and Series 2017B Project 3 taxable bonds.
The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s, AA-minus by S&P and AA by Fitch.
JPMorgan Securities is expected to price the Miami-Dade County Health Facilities Authority, Fla.’s $150 million of Series 2017 hospital revenue and revenue refunding bonds for the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
The deal is rated A-plus by S&P and Fitch.
In the competitive arena on Tuesday, Howard County, Md., is selling $358.76 million of bonds in three separate sales consisting of $145.45 million of Series 2017B consolidated public improvement refunding bonds, $133.57 million of Series 2017A consolidated public improvement project bonds, and $79.75 million of Series 2017C metropolitan district project and refunding bonds.
All three deals are rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.
Ohio is selling $310 million of higher education general obligation bonds in two separate sales of $300 million Series 2017A tax-exempts and $10 million of Series 2017B taxables.
Both deals are rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.
Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was unchanged from 2.17% on Friday, while the 30-year GO yield was flat from 2.97%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.
U.S. Treasuries were weaker on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury dipped to 1.27% on Friday, while the 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 2.36 from 2.37%, and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.99% from 3.00%.
The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 91.9% on Monday compared to 91.4% on Friday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 99.3%, versus 99.1%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 34,570 trades on Friday on volume of $12.28 billion.
Prior week's actively traded issues
Revenue bonds comprised 58.13% of new issuance in the week ended April 7, down from 58.21% in the previous week, according to
General obligation bonds comprised 36.26% of total issuance, down from 36.44%, while taxable bonds made up 5.61%, up from 5.35%.
Some of the most actively traded issues by type were from New York, California and Michigan.
In the GO bond sector, the Suffolk County, N.Y., 2.25s of 2018 were traded 31 times. In the revenue bond sector, the California Golden State Tobacco Securitization Corp. 5s of 2028 were traded 37 times. And in the taxable bond sector, the L’Anse Creuse Public Schools, Mich., 2.678s of 2022 were traded 21 times.
Previous week's top underwriters
The top negotiated and competitive underwriters of last week included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, RBC Capital Markets, Goldman Sachs, and Stifel, according to Thomson Reuters data.
In the week of April 2 to April 8, BAML underwrote $2.01 billion, Citi $1.54 billion, RBC $604.8 million, Goldman $587.9 million and Stifel $364.3 million.
