Chip Barnett

The Bond Buyer takes a look back and remembers the men and women in the public finance industry who died this year.

Refinitiv Lipper reported tax-exempt mutual funds saw $1.288 billion of inflows in the week ended Dec. 23, the seventh week in a row investors put cash into the funds.

IHS Ipreo estimates the week's bond volume at $7.3 million in a calendar composed only of small negotiated deals.

The muni market headed into holiday hibernation on the last full trading day of the week.

Taxable munis have posted the highest returns among all fixed-income indexes this year, BofA said.

Munis were flat Monday as the entire curve was said to be undergoing a consolidation.

ICI reported another $2.3 billion of inflows, new deals continue the march to lower yields and benchmarks rose a basis point seven years and out for the first time since the beginning of December.

Bid list volume is trending higher into the end of the year, but its share as measured against overall high demand does not pose much of a threat, analysts say. Refinitiv Lipper reports $992 million of inflows.

The Bond Buyer chose the Ford Foundation’s $1 billion sale of taxable social bonds as the Deal of the Year winner in the Environmental, Social and Governance/Green financing category.

Michael Chalker, portfolio manager and senior analyst at LM Capital Group, talks with Chip Barnett about the fixed-income markets and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. (16 minutes)

The Investment Company Institute reported municipal bond funds saw $2.675 billion of inflows in the latest reporting week.

Sources said the JFK deal was massively oversubscribed, allowing underwriters to lower yields from 15 to 45 basis points.

Municipals held firm ahead of this week's new issue slate, which features deals from issuers in New York and Texas. Treasuries weakened as stocks rose on positive coronavirus news.

Municipals continue to rally as market participants get ready to head into a quiet holiday week.

Large blocks of New Jersey paper changed hands with yields that pushed spreads below 100 basis points on some maturities for the recently downgraded state.

Sarah Mitchell, CFA and a portfolio manager at Mondrian Investment Partners, talks with Chip Barnett about one of the hottest sectors in the municipal bond market today – green bonds – and the possibility of the U.S. government issuing a sovereign green bond. (20 minutes)

A supply/demand imbalance allowed New Jersey and Massachusetts to reprice to lower yields while the beleaguered New York MTA will head back to the Fed for liquidity.

Comptroller Stringer said Mayor de Blasio can present his updated Financial Plan with a path to a balanced budget for fiscal 2022 without cuts to essential services, layoffs of city workers, or borrowing to support operating expenses.

The strong demand amid a dearth of new municipal issuance by states and a reach for yield also allowed New Jersey to skip a planned taxable portion and officials announced it would not need to access the Fed's Municipal Liquidity Facility.

Municipals were steady to stronger ahead of $11.5 billion of supply as requests for new municipal bond identifiers surged almost 40% last month.