Finance

The municipal market was marked by some skittishness among investors on Tuesday as a new month gets underway.

States face a multi-trillion infrastructure gap, which they need to address with a sense of urgency, a speaker at the Milken Institute Global Conference said.

Moody's upgraded five Illinois public universities after lifting the state government's rating, lifting one to investment grade and putting three others closer.

Municipal returns in April were deeply negative, bringing the year-to-date figure to near 9% losses, the largest posted on the Bloomberg Muni Index since its inception in the 1980s.

Illinois expects to sell about $1 billion of new-money general obligation debt but the deal could grow if market conditions permit savings on a refunding piece.

Investors will be greeted Monday with a steep drop in volume, with the new-issue calendar estimated at $4.583 billion — less than half of this week's supply.

This is the second time S&P Global Ratings placed New Orleans on negative CreditWatch due to long delays in publishing audited financial statements.

Investors pulled more from municipal bond mutual funds in the latest week, with Refinitiv Lipper reporting $2.875 billion of outflows, down from $3.548 billion of outflows in the previous week.

In a recent survey, just over half of community bankers expressed concern that the central bank will harm the U.S. economy by raising rates too fast in its quest to contain inflation.

In the week ending April 13, investors pulled $5.526 billion from the funds, down from $7.227 billion of outflows in the previous week, ICI reported.

The city's share of American Relief Plan Act funds eased fiscal pressures and provides runway for the city to work on a pension funding fix.

Relative cheapness, wider spreads and underperformance in munis are providing better value, all set against a very solid and resilient credit background, analysts say, but supply is testing investor sentiment amid volatility.

Another swing in U.S. Treasury market pushes muni to UST ratios out long even cheaper.

Fitch affirmed the Los Angeles-area airport's A rating and raised its outlook to stable though a $1 billion terminal project stalled during the pandemic.

The Treasury’s latest tax collection may preview how the shrinking of the Federal Reserve’s $9 trillion balance sheet, or quantitative tightening, will unfold for the markets and global liquidity.

The new-issue calendar tops $9 billion led by $3 billion taxable and tax-exempts from University of California Regents, a $1 billion plus healthcare deal from Michigan and $1.35 billion of GOs from Washington State.

Properly designed public banks would be safer than private banks while promoting economic growth.

Fitch and S&P have now joined Moody’s in downgrading the Renton, Washington-based healthcare system’s $6 billion of bonds.

Investors pulled more from municipal bond mutual funds in the latest week, with Refinitiv Lipper reporting $3.548 billion of outflows, down from $4.106 billion of outflows in the previous week.

Moody's lifted Illinois one notch to Baa1, marking the state's third rating upgrade over the last year and first since lawmakers passed a state budget.