Yields little changed; Florida Municipal Power Agency brings $59.14 million of St. Lucie bonds

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Aug. 29 - With most of the week's pricing action already completed, municipals yields were mostly unchanged, market sources reported Wednesday.

"It's just a very sleepy session," said a trader reached in the afternoon.

"Trading is sluggish. There's already a holiday feel to the market overall. I'd call it flat, but we have had a firmer tone."

Supply pressure has been substantially alleviated, with very little scheduled for pricing in the next week and a half, the trader noted.

The slump in new-issue activity is likely to continue into the coming Labor Day-shortened week, said Alan Schankel, managing director with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC.

"There is very little new issue volume this week, and next week's post-holiday session has little scheduled so far," Schankel said Wednesday.

Florida Muni Power deal prices

In light primary activity Wednesday, the Florida Municipal Power Agency priced $59,135,000 of series 2012A St. Lucie project revenue bonds, said a pricing sheet.

The bonds (A2//A) were sold through Bank of America Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC.

The bonds are due Oct. 1, 2026, bear interest at 5% and priced at 122.923.

Proceeds will be used to retire bonds issued by the agency and to terminate a swap agreement related to those bonds.

Orange County bonds ahead

Even though the new-issue calendar is sparse for the next couple of weeks, Orange County, Fla., does have an offering coming up next week.

The county plans to sell $100,595,000 of series 2012C sales tax revenue refunding bonds (Aa2/AA/AA+) competitively.

The bonds, which are due 2014 to 2024, will be used to refund the county's series 2002A sales tax revenue bonds.

The county last came to market in April with $97,295,000 of series 2012B sales tax revenue refunding bonds. Those bonds are due 2014 and 2025 to 2032 with coupons from 4% to 5% and yields from 0.71% to 4.074%.

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