Markets News from Bond Buyer

Issuance for the week of Sept. 2 is at an estimated $7.457 billion, with $6.179 billion of negotiated deals and $1.278 billion of competitive deals on tap, according to LSEG.

With the break in issuance this week, the market has firmed a bit, said Tim McGregor, managing partner at Riverbend Capital Advisors.

Paul Chatalas, director of capital markets for the state, said the six series of bonds drew "aggressive bids."

While issuance has been on a record pace this year, this week sees a slight slowdown in activity, caused by participants going on vacation, said Jeff Timlin, a partner at Sage Advisory.

In a 2-1 vote, county commissioners approved an Oct. 8 competitive general obligation bond sale to keep funding a jail project amid escalating costs.

While issuance is up year-over-year, weeks like this can be difficult to find the right deals, said Whitney Fitts, director of municipal portfolio management at Appleton Partners.

"We expect subdued activity again [this] week heading into the Labor Day holiday," Birch Creek strategists said.

The relative rarity of the credit was compounded by their source of funds, the deal's size, and bond ratings slightly lower than New York state and city. 

Munis underperformed a UST rally, which had everything to do with Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium and future Fed action, said Cooper Howard, a fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab.

San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit has struggled to regain ridership after the pandemic.

The University of Chicago went to market this week, as the Trump administration has targeted higher education and faculty criticize budget and program cuts.

A possible explanation is that the massive inflows into mutual funds are a parallel move to large inflows into the Capital Group Municipal High-Income ETF, which saw the biggest inflow of a ETF on Friday at $1.5 billion, said Pat Luby, head of municipal strategy at CreditSights.

RBC Capital Markets will be the underwriter for the bonds, which will have a maximum maturity of 40 years.

Hastedt says the city plans two bond sales this fall.

FOMC meeting minutes "clearly show why they didn't cut rates," said Northlight Asset Management Chief Investment Officer Chris Zaccarelli.

The 10-campus public university system apparently scrapped plans to price $1.5 billion in debt this week.

The muni bond market remains strong, supported by Treasury market strength, said Anders S. Persson, Nuveen's chief investment officer for global fixed income, and Daniel J. Close, Nuveen's head of municipals.

"If unfavorable economic numbers ... are released next month, we should expect a hold on any rate cuts and a possible rate hike to follow, putting a damper on any positive returns for the rest of the year," said Jason Wong, vice president of municipals at AmeriVet Securities.

Doe announced his decision to hand over the day-to-day duties to his partners in a client email on Friday.

Electric power bond issuance was up 47.8% and educatron issuance was up 31.6% from the first half of 2024.