Finance

The private Massachusetts college is partnering with the Collegiate Housing Foundation to address a good problem for a Northeast school to have: rising demand.

Muni returns so far in August are in the black, with the Bloomberg Municipal Index at 0.53% this month and 1.04% year to date. High-yield continues to outperform with returns at 0.68% in August and 5.99% in 2024.

In an environment characterized by dwindling enrollment, slowing revenues, and the end of COVID-19 federal aid, small private universities are struggling to remain afloat.

California and Oregon are experiencing yet another record-setting year of wildfires amid increasing uncertainty about FEMA and property insurance backstops.

The past several trading sessions have seen "crazy volatility," said Jennifer Johnston, director of research of municipal bonds at Franklin Templeton.

The state bond commission approved Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan as part of an underwriting pool Louisiana can hire on debt deals.

Thursday's pricing of senior revenue bonds comes after Fitch Ratings upgraded the airport's subordinate debt.

Recent events have been a "roundtrip" for rates, starting with the sentiment shifting from slowing inflation to a softening labor market, said James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.

This week's new-issue calendar will be "outsized," said Anders S. Persson, Nuveen's chief investment officer for global fixed-income, and Daniel J. Close, Nuveen's head of municipals.

LIPA's prepares to go to market with new leadership as it prepares to decide on its next power supply management services provider.

All eyes now turn to the September Federal Open Market Committee meeting where the Fed is expected to cut rates, but market participants are mixed on whether it will be a 25- or 50-basis-point cut.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw inflows as investors added $1.112 billion to funds after $892.2 million of inflows the week prior, according to LSEG Lipper.

"The Fed remains data dependent as always, but it now appears that the 'more good data' bar is not as high as it was before, particularly with labor market developments becoming more important," said Michael Gregory, deputy chief economist at BMO Economics.

Yields may move lower after the Federal Reserve "communicates its goals to ease policy in coming meetings," said Tom Kozlik, managing director and head of public policy and municipal strategy at HilltopSecurities.

Concerns have been raised about audits related to nearly $2.9 billion of ratepayer-backed bonds sold for Oklahoma utilities in 2022.

"The overall muni market appears to be in a good balance despite the hefty slate of primary issuance that has occurred over the past few months," Birch Creek Capital strategists said.

The muni market tends to have "remarkable patience" in relation to USTs, said BofA strategists.

Despite munis being mixed Thursday, the muni AAA yield curve remains inverted, said Taylor Huffman, a client portfolio manager at PTAM.

Local government investment pools remain free from SEC rules

"While supply has been outsized over the last several weeks, the market has also seen outsized reinvestment demand over the last several months," said Nuveen strategists.