Finance

The two hires boost Bancroft's muni staff to 11 in offices in Dallas, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, and San Mateo, California.

"Despite a pick-up in volatility in the rates market, municipals have been performing relatively well in October," according to Barclays PLC.

Moody's says Hawaii's tourism-based economy is disproportionately vulnerable to high inflation. It affirmed the state at Aa2 ahead of a $800 million GO deal.

The Kansas Corporation Commission approved a $92.7 million securitization for Atmos Energy. It had already approved $328 million for Kansas Gas Service.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $2.262 billion of outflows from municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday after $2.057 billion the week prior.

The Investment Company Institute reported $5.128 billion of outflows for the week ending Oct. 5 after $5.374 billion of outflows the previous week.

Ohio's growing economic diversity helped draw a positive outlook from Moody's, a month after a Fitch Ratings upgrade.

The rating outlook boost to positive from stable follows recent progress on steadying reserve rates and paying down debt, S&P said.

Munis are in the black so far in October and some participants see signs of continued improvement.

UBS Group was the only bank that underwrites munis included in the state's list of financial companies determined to be boycotting energy businesses.

While October is typically a busy issuance month, 2022 is not shaping up to be as more issuers are sidelined by volatility. The primary market will see another light calendar in the holiday-shortened week.

U.S. Treasuries saw more losses and municipal to UST ratios fell on the day's moves with the long bond valuation below 100%.

Steve Genyk, head of middle markets, will assume leadership of the public finance team on an interim basis, the firm said.

The Sherwood school district in northwest Oregon had its issuer rating downgraded to A3 from A1 by Moody's Investors Service.

Ratings for Kansas have not changed since it was downgraded three times during the prior decade due to structural budget problems in the wake of tax cuts.

Bids wanteds are on the rise, but a constructive secondary market showed a steady to firmer market in the past two sessions. ICI's latest outflows figure is the highest since June.

Triple-A yields fell four to 10 basis points across the curve amid robust secondary trading with high-grade names showing clear moves to lower yields.

Munis open October firmer, underperforming a UST rally, but September closed out the month with 3.84% losses — the single largest monthly loss since September 2008.

Friday's action brings the state's outlook to positive with all four major credit rating agencies.

Triple-A yields rose more than three-quarters of a point on the front end and nearly half a point out long in September as munis posted 3.84% losses.