Finance

Moody's Investors Service upgraded St. Louis to A3 from Baa1 citing a "materially improved financial profile."

Daily bid-wanteds totals per Bloomberg have fallen to an average par value below $450 million from $640 million per day during the first quarter and $549 million in the second.

Cooper Howard, director of fixed income strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, talks with Chip Barnett about what municipal bond investors can expect in the second half of the year – low yields and strong fundamentals. He looks at continuing bond fund inflows, rising taxable issuance and compressed spreads. (14 minutes/Taped Aug. 3).

Returns of negative 0.40% would be the third-worst August performance of the past 10 years, according to Bloomberg data.

S&P has Muncie and Plainfield on its watch list with negative implications.

The fast-growing Texas capital was downgraded by Fitch Ratings ahead of a $328 million bond sale that is expected to price in September.

Experts agreed that Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the Fed could start tapering this year and that it would have no implications for liftoff, but not everyone was satisfied with what they heard.

Trades on alternative trading system platforms are smaller and more likely to involve securities with complex features, according to a new MSRB report.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.9 billion of inflows, high-yield gaining $524 million, the 25th consecutive week of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds.

The Investment Company Institute reported $2.3 billion of inflows, bringing 2021 totals to $67 billion.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency upgraded Wisconsin’s general obligation bonds to AAA from AA-plus and S&P Global Ratings lifted them to AA-plus from AA.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency also affirmed the city’s general obligation bond rating at A.

While municipals were little changed, broader markets remain focused on Jackson Hole and speculating what will be said about tapering.

John Ceffalio, Senior Municipal Research Analyst at CreditSights, talks with Chip Barnett about what to expect in the second half of the year. He discusses municipal bond market fundamentals, credit and climate disclosure. And he looks at the pandemic’s long-term risks for U.S. cities as the work-from-home culture becomes stronger and how higher education will cope with a new reality. (18 minutes)

U.S. Treasuries gave little direction Monday, holding ratios and yields steady, leading most participants to argue both are satisfactory to ride out the summer.

Fitch Ratings also maintained a negative outlook on BART.

Municipal bonds ended the week unchanged for the sixth consecutive trading session as inflows surged as more than $7 billion is headed to market next week.

Municipals were unchanged for the fourth consecutive day this week amid slight Treasury strength as demand for yield continued.

Demand was brisk in the primary market while the short-term market traded sideways on the pressure from the heavy new issue calendar, the release of the FOMC minutes and Treasury auction.

The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority sold $813 million of senior lien revenue bonds consisting of tax-exempt refunding, taxable refunding and forward delivery refunding bonds.