Lynne Funk

Supply, however, is still less than the massive amounts of cash on hand. Bond Buyer data shows 30-day visible supply at $12.53 billion.

U.S. Treasuries have been volatile the past five sessions, with municipals largely ignoring the ride. Participants mostly have accepted current rates and ratios as large amounts of cash slosh around a market with strong technicals.

A key demand component in the market again flexed its muscles with ICI reporting another round of $2 billion-plus fund inflows.

Lawyers for the commonwealth warned that Puerto Rico’s legislature will not pass the legislation for new bonds needed by the plan of adjustment if the plan cuts pensions.

Municipals outperformed U.S. Treasuries for a third sessions moving the 10-year municipal to UST ratio below 60%.

Most participants expect better performance for munis in the near-term. Longer-term, a lot depends on rates, COVID and other outside factors, such as infrastructure.

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.

Pedro Pierluisi proposed two measures as an alternative to Law 7-2021, over which the Oversight Board sued the governor and the legislature a week ago.

Fund inflows are a demand component unlikely to slow during the heavy reinvestment season, keeping the yield environment squarely in issuers' favor.

PFM Asset Management will continue to operate as a separate entity. The deal does not affect PFM’s financial advisory business which will continue to operate independently.

More of the same from the FOMC did little to move UST or munis. ICI reported the 17th consecutive week of inflows at $1.98 billion. July is looking good for municipal issuers.

U.S. Treasury 10- and 30-year yields hit February lows. Large blocks of high-grades in secondary trading led triple-A benchmarks to lower yields by two to four basis points across the curve.

High-yield municipal bond returns are more than 6% so far in the year as Nuveen expands its reach in the sector with a new "interval" high-yield fund.

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.

While June was lower than 2020 in par, pandemic-related factors skewed last year's issuance totals, making the $42 billion issued this month high on a historical basis. Outside factors, such as federal aid and potential infrastructure plans, may affect issuance going forward.

A majority of the week's largest new issues priced at yields mostly at or around benchmarks as secondary trading did little to move scales. In economic data released Tuesday, the June consumer confidence index climbed, suggesting spending will rebound.

With various Federal Reserve officials airing their views since the Federal Open Market Committee’s latest meeting, it may take a while for members to reach agreement on tapering, a boon for municipals.

Making it a summer Friday, munis were quiet. Participants contemplate why the market underperformed taxables to the degree they did when fundamentals are objectively strong and little has changed since before the FOMC.

The final new issues of the week close with some bumps in repricings while the secondary was quiet.