Finance

Outflows from municipal bond mutual funds continued as investors pulled $1.180 billion out of funds in the latest week, according to Refinitiv Lipper data.

Raul Amezcua, who once led Stifel's California and Arizona banking teams, hired several key bankers at Ramirez & Co. since joining the firm early last year.

The Investment Company Institute reported $230 million of inflows into muni bond mutual funds in the week ending August 17. ETFs see second week of outflows.

Join Peter O'Neill, Director and Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, at Bank of America, and Blake Lynch, Head of Business Development, IMTC, as they discuss the role of separately managed accounts in the muni market with The Bond Buyer's Lynne Funk.

Don't expect much new information to come from Jackson Hole this year analysts say, as the data-dependent FOMC will rely on incoming economic numbers in September to decide the proper size rate hike.

Directors at two of the Federal Reserve's 12 regional branches favored a 100-basis-point increase in the discount rate in July, minutes of discount-rate meetings show.

Losses for August climbed last week, with month-to-date returns in the red at negative 1.40% on the Bloomberg muni index, high-yield seeing 0.99% losses, taxables at 2.01% losses and the impact index losing 1.70%.

The Minnesota Airports Commission is also in the bond market with a $386 million deal this week, followed by Chicago's $1.77 billion transaction next week.

The rating agency highlighted the state government's recent payments to its underfunded state pension system.

Investors will be greeted Monday with a decrease in supply with the new-issue calendar estimated at $6.711 billion, down from total sales of $10.318 billion.

Investors pulled $229.263 million out of muni bond mutual funds in the latest week, versus the $635.177 million of outflows the prior week, according to Refinitiv Lipper. High-yield continues to see inflows.

Hazelwood's mayor posted a letter on the city website warning of potential bankruptcy if the city can't renegotiate its deal with a fire protection district.

U.S. central bankers offered divergent signals over the size of the next interest rate hike, with St. Louis's James Bullard urging another 75-basis-point move while Kansas City's Esther George struck a more cautious tone.

The short end was hammered in the secondary with large blocks of high-grades showing big swings to higher yields while the rest of the curve wasn't spared the damage and triple-A yields rose by seven to 16 basis points.

It was a busy day in the primary Tuesday, with New York City pricing $950 million of GOs for retail and Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, selling in the competitive market.

The finance team on the Western Placer Waste Management Authority deal hopes to benefit from an improving market with increased inflows.

"Demand for low-duration tax-exempts has been so strong that short maturity benchmark yields are now lower than the after-tax yields for comparably rated benchmark taxable muni and corporate bonds," said CreditSights strategists Pat Luby and John Ceffalio.

Spreads on underwriting municipal bonds dipped to below $4 per $1,000 on issues in the first half of 2022 due to heavy competition and a shrinking volume of deals — the lowest figures reported in two decades.

New-issue volume grows to $10.7 billion led by a $2.7 billion taxable Massachusetts ESG deal, $1.35 billion of Oklahoma natural gas taxables, $1.25 billion from the Regents of the University of California and $1.1 billion from New York City.

S&P revised the state's outlook to positive in September, which gives it a one-in-three chance of a ratings boost over the two-year outlook period.