Finance

The offered curve is "still deeply overbought" at all maturities outside of one year, which is "a signal for issuers and sellers to become aggressive," said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics.

The agency plans to broaden its current market share and expand into new sectors.

Since November, 10-year munis have fallen 130 basis points, according to Refinitiv MMD. This has pushed ratios to near-record lows, said Jason Wong, vice president of municipals at AmeriVet Securities.

The state of Illinois is preparing to issue $600 million in new Build Illinois junior sales tax revenue bonds next week.

Despite the outperformance this week, and while the asset class had "a stellar December, which rounded out a very solid year," Barclays PLC strategists said the high-grade muni market has become "quite rich."

Labor costs that continue to squeeze operating margins remain the biggest obstacle for the nonprofit healthcare sector.

The muni market enters this year from a relative position of strength, said Jeff Lipton, managing director and head of municipal research and strategy at Oppenheimer.

Three districts are under Washington's state fiscal oversight and the largest, Marysville School District, took a multi-notch Moody's bond rating downgrade.

This year has favorable potential for 1Q activity, noting an unusually large scheduled reinvestment potential in January and February, including $19 billion of maturities plus calls in January and $24.9 billion in February, noted MMA's Matt Fabian.

North Las Vegas was upgraded to A-minus from BBB-plus by Fitch Ratings, which kept its positive outlook.

"Buyers went all in on revenue-sector names, with that category earning 6.8% and beating out GOs by 127 basis points," said FHN Financial's Kim Olsan. "Sub-sectors within the revenue category pointed to a risk-on theme into year-end." 

This performance is a dramatic rebound from 2022's losses.

Medford, Oregon-based Asante Health enters 2024 with negative outlooks from Fitch and S&P as it works to complete expansion projects amid industry headwinds.

LSEG Lipper reported Thursday that investors pulled $463.7 million from muni mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday after inflows of $147 million the week prior.

Some general fund spending will be shifted to bonds to help the state meet priorities like housing and healthcare, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced.

Late-month volumes are "waning as it appears the year's tax-loss harvesting was accomplished leading up to the holiday period," said Kim Olsan, senior vice president of municipal bond trading at FHN Financial.

Fitch Ratings upgraded the Riverside County Interstate 15 managed lane project two notches, affecting $152.2 million in debt.

Cooper Howard, director and fixed income strategist for the Charles Schwab Center for Financial Research, shares his thoughts on the intermediate duration with Investors & Investing reporter Christine Albano

Munis' strong performance from November continued into December, said Miguel Laranjeiro, a portfolio manager at abrdn.

The year is ending on a strong note, said Joshua Perry, a partner, portfolio manager and municipal credit analyst at Brown Advisory.