Jessica Lerner

"We're still seeing continued yield pressure out there from the market outlook investors have with the conflict in Iran," said Ajay Thomas, head of public finance at FHN Financial.

The market is navigating volatility driven by geopolitical issues, which has led to trouble for certain deals.

The March/April period is typically a softer period for the muni market, said Jeff Timlin, managing partner and head of municipal bond investing at Sage Advisory.

"There was a certain amount of resilience munis had in the last week, comfortable enough with distribution," said Kim Olsan, senior fixed income portfolio manager at NewSquare Capital Markets. "But the 10-year Treasury backing up behind 4.20%, it proved to be the catalyst for adjusted bid-sides."

U.S. public finance entities could see heightened "cyber reprisals" by Iran and its proxies amid the continuing conflict in the Middle East, with these attacks from state-sponsored actors, hacktivist groups, and lone wolves likely to become more frequent, Fitch Ratings warns.

This week, "look for deals to get priced to attract demand," said Pat Luby, head of municipal strategy at CreditSights, and Wilson Lees, an analyst at the firm.

Many muni participants stayed on the sidelines to start last week due to "the sudden about-face in the Treasury market and uncertainty over how long-lasting the incursion would be," Birch Creek strategists said.

"We are still not overly concerned about the effect of the geopolitical concerns on municipals — in our view, the muni market is well insulated," said Barclays strategists.

Market technicals should weaken this month in line with seasonal expectations, with estimated redemption capital of $32 billion compared to estimated supply of $41 billion, said Appleton Partners strategists.

With USTs stable and the "snoozer" of economic data Wednesday morning, the muni market has settled, with muni yields little, said Jeff MacDonald, EVP and head of fixed income strategies at Fiduciary Trust International.

"Once the damage is done, it takes a little longer for it to come back," said Elaine Brennan, executive director of the public finance department at Roosevelt and Cross, of the muni market.

Monday saw a more muted tone, but Tuesday munis are playing a little bit of a catch-up to the backup in rates, said Chris Brigati, managing director and CIO at SWBC.

First thing this morning, there wasn't much action as market participants waited to see what would happen, but as the day went on, munis got progressively weaker, said Kyle Gerberding, director of trading, a portfolio manager and partner at Asset Preservation Advisors.

Issuance was $40.336 billion in 632 issues, down only 1.1% year-over-year from $40.772 billion across 731 transactions.

On the week, the muni market performed well, with most investor action happening in the longer half of the curve, said BofA strategists.

Investors added $1.029 billion to municipal bond mutual funds in the week ended Wednesday, following $1.269 billion of inflows the prior week, according to LSEG Lipper data. This is the seventh time in eight weeks that inflows have topped $1 billion.

There is a positive view of the muni market in the long-term due to a mix of attractive tax-adjusted yields and a generally favorable credit backdrop, said Cooper Howard, director of fixed income research and strategy at Charles Schwab.

Le will work out of Oppenheimer's Los Angeles office and will focus on California while also supporting clients across the west, the release noted.

While broader economic risks remain, market dynamics are being driven by supply, demand and income generation, rather than macro headlines, said Pat Haskell, head of the municipal bond group at BlackRock.

Moos, who was most recently a managing director of municipal bond sales at Wells Fargo, will report to Bryan Baebler, BAM's head of municipal capital markets.