Finance

The Philadelphia-based university straddles the higher education and healthcare sectors, but market demand suggests it's greater than the sum of its parts.

Issuance will "not completely disappear, but will adjust to its seasonal norm from the record-breaking pace of the past several months," said Barclays' Mikhail Foux.

Observers say the decision may be a credit positive for the financially struggling utility

October's "price path has created wider spreads but also brought higher yields that are now in the range where a broader audience may begin to take notice," said NewSquare Capital Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Manager Kim Olsan, noting higher taxable equivalent yields for different tenors of the yield curve.

Wittstruck takes over the S&P role previously held by Robin Prunty, who retired in August.

Municipals largely stayed in their own lane Wednesday, digesting the large slate of new issues as supply dwindles heading into election week, with Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply falling to $5.56 billion.

California sold tax-exempt and taxable GOs, the University of Miami priced a refunding deal while the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority came with a refunding and tender offer.

The key question for municipal market investors is less about who wins the races for the White House and Congress and more about by how much.

Oppenheimer's Head of Public Finance Beth Coolidge and Columbus Auditor Megan Kilgore delve into the future of public finance and human infrastructure on a wide range of topics, from affordable housing and workforce development to public health, climate resiliency, and digital access.

While the asset class is still in the red for October, it has pared back earlier losses. The Bloomberg Municipal Index is at negative 1.42% in October and positive 0.84% year to date.

The deal was the latest billion-dollar-plus transaction for one of the P3 airport terminal projects at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The correction to the municipal market has improved muni to UST ratios while uncertainty hangs over ahead of the election. J.P. Morgan's Peter DeGroot said the firm expects the end of next week "will mark the end of the difficult technical period in 2024 and believe that net supply in November will lead to better valuations broadly in the municipal market."

Several macro trends have converged to drive growth in municipal bond issuance, said participants at The Bond Buyer's California Public Finance conference.

Vales is currently a director for fixed-income focused broker-dealer InspereX and an independent trustee for the Axonic Funds, having previously served as the CEO of electronic trading platform TMC Bonds, which ICE acquired in 2019.

Build America Mutual insured the majority of the maturities in the West Contra Costa Unified School District GO deal.

The downgrade affects $2.1 billion in bond debt and extends to its utility debt.

While fundamentals remain strong — with credit upgrades outpacing downgrades by 3.5 times so far in 2024 — technical factors have been "less supportive," Principal Asset Management strategists said in a report.

San Francisco's slow recovery from the pandemic and continued financial pressures drove the downgrade, Moody's analysts said.

More project finance deals are part of FHN Financial's plans to grow its municipal finance business.

"The identity of the marginal buyer may be shifting, and with that the market's valuation of structure and liquidity," said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics.