Markets News from Bond Buyer

The payroll data lowered fears of a rate hike, boosting munis and USTs.

Geopolitical and macroeconomic factors are hurting USTs, but the muni market still has momentum, said Hennion & Walsh's James Pruskowski.

The larger tax-exempt portion of the bonds reportedly were 18 times oversubscribed.

The Texas city plans to bring general obligation bonds, certificates of obligation and tax notes to market later this month.

The deal was too highly leveraged for some investors.

Scrutiny of what qualifies as a muni bond is coming, and when it happens, there will be direct implications for liquidity, pricing and investor protection across the market, said James Pruskowski, managing director at Hennion & Walsh.

The world's busiest airport by passenger count is issuing bonds to support its sizable capital program.

News of negotiations with Iran, a strong backdrop from USTs and meaningful tax-equivalent yields are helping the market digest the "deal deluge," according to NewSquare Capital's Kim Olsan.

Muni yields are still higher than they were in June, said Patrick Luby of CreditSights, so investors were happy to put redemption money to work

Two hospital deals were among the first to price Monday, including $1.317 billion for Henry Ford Health and $1.118 billion of bonds for Intermountain Health.

The Texas city will offer $540.55 million of senior lien and $122.45 million of junior lien special tax revenue bonds to investors this week.

Market Intelligence analyst Jeff Lipton says overreliance on financial ratios can obscure forward-looking credit risks, making qualitative factors such as political willingness, management strategy, cyber-threat preparedness, legal security and economic and policy change essential to muni decision-making.

Positive developments in Iran have munis looking stronger, said Tim Iltz of H.J. Sims, but if the headlines turn negative, it could hurt markets in a week with high volume.

Brightline Florida now has until Friday to make the payments, negotiate another extension, or restructure its $5.5 billion of debt.

Issuance was $44.928 billion in 694 deals, down 19.8% year-over-year from $56.055 billion across 860 transactions.

Although the proposal ultimately didn't become law, that disconnect created an attractive entry point for investors because prices reflected tax policy fears — not deteriorating municipal credit.

After the week's losses, August could kick off with a "buyer's market" for munis, Peter DeGroot wrote for J.P. Morgan.

With longer-term municipal bond yields falling, there's less of an incentive to issue tender option bonds, analysts said, but a market remains. 

Wednesday's FOMC meeting helped sparked a selloff in U.S. Treasuries. On Thursday, it was the muni market's turn to react, MMA's Kevin McGuigan said.

The city brings $122.2 million of GO bonds to market next week, believing its investment-grade ratings outweigh the defaults of the Puerto Rico government.