Jessica Lerner is a senior reporter and buy-side specialist for Bond Buyer where she writes the daily market column, the monthly volume story and longer trend stories. Prior to this, she worked as a beat reporter at two Connecticut newspapers. She earned her master's in business and economics reporting from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and her bachelor's in journalism and statistics from the University of Connecticut.
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The onslaught of new-issuance and approaching month- and quarter-end led triple-A yields to rise up to seven basis points on the short end and as much as three to five elsewhere along the curve, despite stronger U.S. Treasuries. Short ratios rose as a result.
March 26 -
The UC Regents will close the books on its $1.1 billion refunding deal that included the refunding BABs Wednesday. Investors do not appear to be penalizing the issuer in secondary trading as spreads have stayed at or near the original pricing.
March 26 -
This week's new-issue calendar grows and includes some "common benchmark names like CA GO, NYC GO, and WA GO," Birch Creek strategists said.
March 25 -
The calendar is led by several high-profile deals, including $2.7 billion of GOs from California, $1.5 billion from New York City and $1.1 billion from Washington. High-yield gets another dose of unrated project finance debt from Miami Worldcenter Project tax increment revenue bonds. The Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply sits at $12.06 billion.
March 22 -
Hallam will handle high-yield muni sales and trading, focusing on large institutional accounts at the firm.
March 22 -
The Washington refunding deal is built on an extraordinary optional redemption of Build America Bonds despite criticism from investors who hold them.
March 22 -
The extraordinary redemptions being used to call Build America Bonds "are based on a creative but flawed legal argument driven by the current change in interest rates," said Kramer Levin partner Amy Caton.
March 21 -
Citi's exit comes amid the larger trend of broker-dealers downsizing balance sheets, which can hurt secondary market liquidity, particularly in times of stress. Other market players are coming into the fold.
March 21 -
"The balance of March may continue to be better-than-expected, particularly given existing demand and decent reinvestment needs over the next 30 days," according to Oppenheimer's Jeff Lipton.
March 20 -
The New York MTA has not sold fixed-rate transportation revenue bonds since February 2021. The first maturity of that deal (4% 11/15/44) priced at +81 and was evaluated at +78 as of Wednesday by BVAL, according to CreditSights strategists. The same maturity but with a 5% coupon was priced at +59 to BVAL.
March 18
