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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Inflows continued with the Investment Company Institute reporting investors added $931 million to mutual funds in the week ending Feb. 15, after $2.194 billion of inflows the previous week.
February 22 -
"The close to 50 bp adjustment to the front end of the AAA municipal curve, taken at face value, appears to be a huge step toward pricing normalization for tax-exempts," said Eric Kazatsky, head of municipal strategy at Bloomberg Intelligence.
February 21 -
Investors will be greeted Monday with a new-issue calendar estimated at $3.603 billion.
February 17 -
Refinitiv Lipper reported $68.054 million was pulled from municipal bond mutual funds in the week that ended Wednesday after $775.006 million of inflows the week prior.
February 16 -
Inflows continued with the Investment Company Institute reporting investors added $2.194 billion to mutual funds in the week ending Feb. 8, after $1.471 billion of inflows the previous week.
February 15 -
Spline's curves are offered in a variety of configurations, including by rating, source of payback, and trade size, and are updated every five minutes.
February 15 -
"Markets were expecting (hoping, praying) to get further confirmation that a peak is in and the decline is at least steady, if not accelerating," said Jan Szilagyi, CEO and co-founder of Toggle AI.
February 14 -
February municipal bond activity compared to last month is brisk yet more finicky in the face of an ongoing supply shortage, according to Jeff Lipton, head of municipal credit and market strategy and municipal capital markets at Oppenheimer & Co.
February 13 -
Total volume in 2022 was at $389.094 billion in 9,123 deals, down 19.5% from the $483.358 billion in 13,130 deals in 2021, according to Refinitiv data.
February 13 -
The two main insurers, Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. and Build America Mutual, accounted for $28.823 billion of deals in 2022 compared to $37.193 billion of in 2021.
February 13 -
"This peculiar shape of the muni yield curve has created a conundrum for investors, as all high-quality municipal bonds, with the possible exception of the long end, have become quite rich," Barclays strategists said.
February 10 -
Inflows returned as Lipper reported $775.006 million was added to municipal bond mutual funds in the week ended Wednesday after $361.649 million of outflows the week prior.
February 9 -
Although there is some volatility in the municipal market, the landscape is in good shape, according to Cooper Howard, fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab.
February 8 -
"The market started the year with a reduction of the oppressive pressure caused by last year's heavy net outflows from mutual funds," said CreditSights strategists Pat Luby and Sam Berzok.
February 7 -
"We did see some bump in the curve as a result of the FOMC hiking rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday," said Jason Wong, vice president of municipals at AmeriVet Securities. "However, with an unexpected high employment number, fixed-income yields rose."
February 6 -
Friday's payrolls "surprised to the upside, with nonfarm payrolls increasing 517,000 last month after an upwardly revised 260,000 gain in December," Barclays strategists said.
February 3 -
Nearly two-thirds of market participants in a Bond Buyer live market survey believe 2023 issuance will remain around last year's levels.
February 3 -
The top two municipal bond insurers wrapped $28.224 billion in 2022, a 30.1% decrease from the $37.486 billion of deals done in 2021, according to Refinitiv data.
February 3 -
A few developments in recent sessions "may have staying power should the new outlook on upcoming FOMC actions gain traction," said Kim Olsan, a senior vice president of municipal bond trading at FHN Financial.
February 2 -
"Investors are acknowledging that the Fed is nearing the end of its rate tightening cycle which is supporting a relief rally in stocks and lower bond yields, said Bryce Doty, senior vice president at Sit Investment Associates.
February 1
