Gary Siegel

A larger new-issue calendar greets investors with a lot of cash on hand and strategists expect municipal yields to rise as the calendar builds.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.1 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds, with high-yield falling to $144 million. Even with the lower reported inflows, funds still raked in record billions so far in 2021.

Kristen Fontana was nominated for her ability to collaborate with bankers, underwriters, salespeople and traders, and a wide-ranging perspective allowing for the crossover of ideas and innovative credit strategies.

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Supply clocks in at $5.987 billion for the holiday-shortened week. Municipal new-issue volume is still lagging demand with Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $10.30 billion, while Bloomberg shows net negative supply at $11.430 billion.

Refinitiv Lipper reported just over $1 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds, an $800 million drop from a week prior, moving the four week moving average to $1.6 billion.

ICI reported $1.99 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds, bringing the total to $69 billion for 2021.

Daily bid-wanteds totals per Bloomberg have fallen to an average par value below $450 million from $640 million per day during the first quarter and $549 million in the second.

Returns of negative 0.40% would be the third-worst August performance of the past 10 years, according to Bloomberg data.

Experts agreed that Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the Fed could start tapering this year and that it would have no implications for liftoff, but not everyone was satisfied with what they heard.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.9 billion of inflows, high-yield gaining $524 million, the 25th consecutive week of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds.

The Investment Company Institute reported $2.3 billion of inflows, bringing 2021 totals to $67 billion.

While municipals were little changed, broader markets remain focused on Jackson Hole and speculating what will be said about tapering.

U.S. Treasuries gave little direction Monday, holding ratios and yields steady, leading most participants to argue both are satisfactory to ride out the summer.

Municipal bonds ended the week unchanged for the sixth consecutive trading session as inflows surged as more than $7 billion is headed to market next week.

Municipals were unchanged for the fourth consecutive day this week amid slight Treasury strength as demand for yield continued.

Demand was brisk in the primary market while the short-term market traded sideways on the pressure from the heavy new issue calendar, the release of the FOMC minutes and Treasury auction.

The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority sold $813 million of senior lien revenue bonds consisting of tax-exempt refunding, taxable refunding and forward delivery refunding bonds.

As New York City launched the first of its two-day retail order period on $1.039 billion of GO bonds, the market was uneventful ahead of $9.76 billion in the primary market this week

Joe Kalish, chief global macro strategist at Ned Davis Research, discusses his thoughts on when the Federal Reserve will announce it will cut back on its asset purchases, the possibility of Chair Jerome Powell’s re-nomination and what to expect from the Jackson Hole summit. Gary Siegel hosts (27 minutes)