Gary Siegel

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)

Negotiated deals were repriced to lower yields while competitive deals saw levels coming in through triple-A benchmarks. High-grade benchmarks were little changed.

Ed Moya, senior market analyst for the Americas at OANDA, talks with Bond Buyer Managing Editor Gary Siegel about the upcoming FOMC meeting, inflation, the possibility of tapering and the future make-up of the Fed in a wide-ranging discussion on the economy and monetary policy. (31 minutes)

While municipals hit the pause button Friday, the movement in yields in the first week of July marked the largest one-week decline in 2021.

With better-than-expected payrolls, economists still caution full recovery is a ways away. Muni participants are closely following how the Fed's action — or inaction — will affect the municipal market going forward.

The broader market awaits Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report, but Thursday brought some helpful labor news — unemployment claims dropped to the lowest since before the pandemic-caused economic shutdowns and layoffs plunged in June.