Chip Barnett is a journalist with almost 50 years of professional experience. He started his career at the Gannett Newspapers in Westchester County, N.Y., working his way up from back-shop compositor to Senior News Editor. Barnett later worked for Thomson Reuters in Manhattan, covering state and local government finance as a Reporter and later Executive Editor for TM3.com and as Editor in Charge of Municipal Finance for Reuters News. Later, he was the Editor of Municipal Finance Today at SourceMedia. Barnett has also worked for DebtWire/Municipals and has written about commercial real estate in South Florida and the Midwest for both The Real Deal and Globe Street. Barnett is currently a Reporter at The Bond Buyer.
-
Magalie Austin takes over from Jonnell Doris, who was named commissioner for Small Business Services.
May 19 -
The primary was up and running Monday with Connecticut’s $850M offering for retail while many Texas issuers were active on the heels of the Fed news that it is open for business for munis.
May 18 -
Uncertainty and volatility have caused a bifurcated market when it comes to credit, and widespread disparity between high-quality and high-yield is complicating matters for issuers.
May 15 -
Yields on all triple-A benchmark curves out to nine years are now below 1%. The largest bumps were again on the very short end of the curve. Lipper reported $580 million of inflows.
May 14 -
Investors are sending the message that higher-grade, longer-term issuers will fare far better than lower-rated, higher-yield ones amid a focus on credit.
May 13 -
The short end of the municipal curve again saw yields fall, but that didn't impede the productivity of the day's new-issue market.
May 12 -
The Fed on Monday essentially said it was standing 10 feet back from the market, allowing it to manage the pandemic-driven crisis itself. Lower-rated issuers may benefit most from the facility.
May 11 -
High-grade trading Friday showed the disparate credit picture that investors are facing; they now need to dig deeper into municipal financials and the backstops on certain bonds.
May 8 -
In the midst of issuer credit deterioration due to coronavirus, muni yields fell and new-deals were priced on the heels of California's $54 billion deficit news.
May 7 -
Primary deals are now coming at tighter spreads to the secondary than they have recently. Cooler heads are appearing on the institutional side, but ICI reports $1.7 billion pulled from muni market mutual funds.
May 6
