Finance

"We're looking to grow our team in various parts of municipal practice and it was time to really add a banker in the Midwest," Janney's head of public finance, Vivian Altman said. "We see a lot of potential in the Midwest."

Matthew Gastall and Daryl Helsing of Morgan Stanley delve into how municipals are performing versus other asset classes, where taxable munis fit and how they see the market performing heading into the summer reinvest. Jessica Lerner hosts. (36 minutes)

Elevated new issues, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sale lists, and heavy reinvestment cash "helped to offset each other [last] week and keep the muni market stable," said Birch Creek strategists.

Bond traders have overestimated month-over-month headline inflation heading into four of the last seven Consumer Price Index releases, says strategist Raghav Datla.

Federal Reserve data shows that retail ownership of municipals rose $58.8 billion, or 3.7% quarter-over-quarter, to $1.67 trillion. Bank ownership fell in the first quarter by $13.3 billion.

Municipals have continued outperforming, "building on the trend that started in late May," Barclays strategists Mikhail Foux, Clare Pickering and Mayur Patel said.

Molloy will be leaving the banking giant for the nonprofit sector. Dan Tomson and Paul Creedon, co-heads of public finance, will be taking over his responsibilities.

"How fund flows end up shaping up this week is going to be very meaningful for how we start the summer," said Tom Kozlik, managing director and head of public policy and municipal strategy at HilltopSecurities.

The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet next week with many experts expecting to see a pause in federal fund rate hikes after ten straight upticks.

Weekday ridership on the farebox-dependent regional transit system is below 40% of pre-pandemic levels. Some lawmakers are pushing a state transit rescue package.

The Investment Company Institute reported investors pulled another $374 million out of municipal bond mutual funds in the week ending May 31, after $671 million of outflows the previous week

The upgrade lifts $1 billion of the Jacksonville system's water and sewer system senior revenue bonds to AA-plus from AA.

Gambone, who has 30 years of experience in the municipal finance industry, replaced retiring head of public finance Eileen Solla-Diaz.

"June started out fairly strong for the municipal market as the relative cheapness attracted investors looking for an opening to start buying bonds at higher yields," said Roberto Roffo, managing director and portfolio manager at SWBC Investment Company.

Last week, munis underperformed the Treasury market "across the curve through Thursday with yields lower just 13bps," according to Birch Creek strategists. However, they said Friday's rally "in the front end helped pull shorter maturity munis ahead."

For the coming week, investors will be greeted with a new-issue calendar estimated at $8.213 billion.

Outflows continue as Refinitiv Lipper reported investors pulled $1.345 billion from municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday.

Suzanne Shank has been chosen as chair of the 2024 Mackinac Policy Conference, the Detroit Regional Chamber announced.

State legislation that increases Milwaukee's revenue prospects falls short of what the city needs to manage rising pension and other costs, Fitch Ratings said.

Strength that began on Tuesday and continued Wednesday marked the first sessions since early May for positive performance after a hefty selloff, noted Kim Olsan, senior vice president at FHN Financial.