Alabama

The region's municipal bond volume grew by 42.4%, outpacing the nationwide 32% increase in a first-half marked by gas prepay deals and Brightline's big sale.

In the first half of 2024, winding-down federal aid, a resurgence of Build America Bond refundings and election uncertainty have contributed to the surge in issuance, said James Welch, a portfolio manager at Principal Asset Management.

Enviva's $353 million in tax-exempt bonds currently are among the liabilities at stake in the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

"Each party in this deal benefits in some way," said Seema Mohanty, founder of Mohanty Gargiulo.

The pace of the issuance and the increase of refundings, surging 59.6% in the first quarter of 2024, have also led some firms to up their overall 2024 issuance projections.

High rates and high inflation, coupled with rich reserves, pushed off or delayed issuers coming to market in 2023, noted James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.

"This bill is aimed at providing more economic opportunity for our cash-strapped airports," said bill sponsor Rep. Chip Brown before the House passed it 98-2.

Natural gas prepayment deals helped drive the utilities sector to top the Southeast in an overall down year for municipal bond sales across the region.

The top five bond financings have an average dollar volume of nearly $1.5 billion.

Meanwhile in New York, the state doubles down on climate investments and restricts investments in some big oil and gas companies as the city blasts several big banks as they pull out from the Climate Action 100+ initiative.

Fitch said its upgrade "reflects the removal of the asymmetric additional risk relating to potential general fund exposure to the county's enterprise sewer system … which reflects the system's recent restructuring of its outstanding debt."

Issuance for the month is slightly above the $27.666 billion 10-year average, according to LSEG Refinitiv data.

The one-year was cut up to eight basis points, depending on the scale.

Since November, 10-year munis have fallen 130 basis points, according to Refinitiv MMD. This has pushed ratios to near-record lows, said Jason Wong, vice president of municipals at AmeriVet Securities.

Despite the outperformance this week, and while the asset class had "a stellar December, which rounded out a very solid year," Barclays PLC strategists said the high-grade muni market has become "quite rich."

The county plans to sell $2.5 billion of tax-exempt sewer revenue warrants to refund the debt issued to finance its 2013 exit from Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Prices have fallen for Alabama private activity bonds issued for wood pellet producer Enviva amid the firm's larger struggles.

An EPA investigation will focus on potential discrimination against Black communities in the distribution of wastewater improvement funds following complaints from public advocacy groups.

The North Alabama operator priced $190 million of revenue bonds Aug. 29 to support among other things the purchase of an orthopedic physicians' practice.

The region's issuers sold $30.3 billion of municipal bonds in the first half of 2023, 29.9% less than they did during the same period last year