Muni Minute

California water bonds highlight the light holiday-week calendar.

The Golden State keeps its issuance streak alive as it get set to sell $2.1 billion of general obligation bonds later this week. This deal is primarily a refunding — a result of bonds sold in 2009 under the Stimulus Act hitting their 10-year call date.

Green bonds and sustainable offerings are on tap this week as several sales are set to hit the market. Buyers are expected to snap up the paper that aims to fund clean water, school and housing initiatives.

Investors will see municipal bonds of all stripes and shapes hit the market this week, with high-grades and high-yields competing with tax-exempt and taxable, all pricing into a declining yield environment amid recession worries.

With a mere $2.4 billion of municipal new issuance this week, investors will face stiff competition for paper.

Municipal bond buyers will see several big deals head their way this week. Taking the top spot is a $654 million deal from the Regents of the University of California to be priced by UBS while Citi is set to price the Lower Colorado River Authority's $370 million offering.

The West and East Coasts will battle it out for the top municipal deal of the week — with California coming with a $2.3 billion GO deal and NYC coming with almost $990 million of bonds.

Intel Corp. is this week’s top headline act in the municipal bond primary market as issuers in Arizona and Oregon prepare to sell $650 million of industrial and economic development revenue bonds.

The District of Columbia and two Texas issuers are coming to market with municipal bond deals that will warm the hearts of supply-starved investors.

Attention in the municipal bond market turns westward as some of the week's biggest deals will be coming from Hawaii, Washington state and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Buyers will see the biggest issuance week of the year as $7.2 billion of deals will hit the screens.