Finance

Municipal supply continues to grow as Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply sits at $20.02 billion and the municipal market will see one of the largest weeks of new-issuance at an estimated $13.35 billion, led by three billion-plus deals from Washington, D.C. ($1.6 billion), the New York City Transitional Finance Authority ($1.5 billion) and Illinois ($1 billion).

Ciraolo, who spent more than 17 years at Goldman Sachs, has been brought on as a senior vice president in corporate and municipal short-term securities to help expand SWS' taxable muni franchise through commercial paper trading.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw inflows as investors added $956 million to funds after $1.047 billion of inflows the week prior, according to LSEG Lipper.

Most weeks in September are expected to see around $10 billion of issuance, which could easily grow if a prepaid gas deal is thrown into the mix, said Jason Appleson, head of municipal bonds at PGIM Fixed Income. Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply sits at $16.46 billion.

House Republicans are hoping to jam through a voter eligibility bill as part of the upcoming continuing resolution in order to avert a shutdown before Sept. 30.

Illinois will sell up to $1.1 billion of general obligation refunding bonds and $600 million of taxable and tax-exempt GO bonds by the end of September.

Summer redemption season has ended, and "without the huge amounts of maturing and called bond principal flowing back to investors, demand in the last months of the year will be more reliant on new money coming into the market than it was in June, July and August," said Pat Luby, head of municipal strategy at CreditSights.

The $180.24 million deal comprises $76.085 million of metropolitan district bonds and $104.155 million of consolidated public improvement bonds.

As extreme weather events occur with more frequency across the country, Michael Gaughan, executive director of the Vermont Bond Bank, says municipal bond banks can help smaller communities deal with the effects of them. Gaughan speaks with The Bond Buyer's Lynne Funk on the effects of climate change and how the various levels of government can work together to address it.

Investors will see more than $7.8 billion of supply to start off September, following a record issuance month in August. The calendar is led by the North Texas Tollway Authority's $1.126 billion of system revenue refunding bonds while high-grade Massachusetts leads the competitive slate with $850 million of exempt and taxable general obligation bonds.

The bank was one of 225 credits Moody's placed on review for possible upgrade July 25 when it released a revised rating methodology.

The muni market is "well-positioned for strategic opportunities, with strong inflows driven by the current narrative and eased secondary selling pressure," said James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.

The sale follows the utility's successful initiation of two nuclear power units in the last 13 months.

The Investment Company Institute reported more than $1.3 billion of inflows into muni mutual funds. The last time inflows topped $1 billion, per ICI data, was for the week ending Feb. 7. LSEG Lipper has reported weeks with $1 billion plus inflows on July 31 and May 8.

ICE's and MarketAxess's networks are "complementary," said Peter Borstelmann, president of ICE Bonds, as the former is "deep and rich" in the retail wealth segment, while the latter is "deep and rich" in the institutional space.

Chicago will bring to market $1 billion of bonds for O'Hare International Airport, part one of a three-phase financing plan for 2024.

"On the whole, the municipal market continues to provide an attractive entry point for investors," said AllianceBernstein strategists. "And with the Fed clearly communicating that a September rate cut is imminent, the future is bright for the municipal market."

The East County AWP Joint Powers Authority plans to construct a water reclamation project using the debt.

Mount Saint Mary College in New York saw its bond rating downgraded to BBB from BBB-plus by Fitch Ratings after persistent declines in student enrollment.

While the nonprofit hospital sector shows signs of stabilizing, Houston-based Texas Children's Hospital faces fiscal problems that led to two rating downgrades.