Finance

Large deals were repriced to lower yields while the secondary market was lightly traded, leading to little changed triple-A yield curves and underperformance to Treasury market gains. Despite a growing calendar, the supply demand imbalance remains with much cash on the sidelines.

The rating agency cited the university's structural budget imbalance and management turnover among factors that drove the outlook revision to negative from stable.

The muni market "exhibited similar themes from the past few weeks as extremely rich valuations and the upcoming unfavorable supply/demand picture have led to a measured buyer base," said Birch Creek Capital strategists in a report.

The San Diego Community College District is among those joining the trend of buying back bonds in a tender to refund for savings.

The bank has also hired some analysts to its infrastructure group over the past several weeks as it plans to beef up its muni team.

The negotiated calendar is led by the Regents of the University of California with nearly $1 billion of general revenue bonds.

The new guidance modifies rules that stretch back to 2005.

High rates and high inflation, coupled with rich reserves, pushed off or delayed issuers coming to market in 2023, noted James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.

Municipals look poised to close out February a touch in the black following a more constructive tone Thursday after being in a 'holding pattern' for much of the past two weeks.

Analysts say states can avoid short-term issues as a result of strong reserves but some may face challenges over the longer term.

Issuance is already slated to be healthy next week, with some large deals on the calendar.

Three of the hires are group heads in public sector and structured finance businesses at the firm.

Extreme weather could aggravate growing property insurance pressures on governments.

Munis should remain well bid until issuance picks up "dramatically," said Nuveen's Anders S. Persson and Daniel J. Close.

The authority is one of the few investment-grade U.S. issuers actively selling triple-tax-exempt paper.

CreditSights said states with the largest payments are Texas at $2 billion, Pennsylvania at $1.5 billion, South Carolina at $1.3 billion and California at $1.2 billion

Based in New York City, Ted Hynes has almost 40 years of experience in the fixed-income markets, the last 15 at Raymond James.

The bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service, AA by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings and AA-plus by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. All four rating agencies have a stable outlook on the credit.

The week ahead boasts some big-name issuers and rare credits, which should provide interesting price discovery. The new-issue calendar totals $6.08 billion, with a larger competitive calendar coming in at $2.4 billion.

More organizations are planning bond sales, although technical factors related to the election may mean deals come early in the year.