Illinois

The Investment Company Institute Wednesday reported large inflows into municipal bond mutual funds, with investors adding $2.066 billion to funds, while exchange-traded funds saw $1.082 billion of outflows for the week ending Jan. 10.

The University of Chicago Harris School's Center for Municipal Finance is joining forces with Investortools to help advance municipal finance knowledge.

The tax-exempt market could also see pressure due to "heavy issuance, anemic flows, and rate volatility," according to Barclays PLC.

The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday saw its issuer rating and debt ratings from Moody's Investors Service elevated a notch to Ba1 from Ba2.

The Fed, financial markets, the upcoming election and AI took center stage on at the Executives' Club of Chicago's Annual Economic Outlook panel.

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.

The state of Illinois is preparing to issue $600 million in new Build Illinois junior sales tax revenue bonds next week.

Half of the top 10 issuers were new entrants: the California Community Choice Finance Authority, Main Street Natural Gas, the state of Washington, the Texas Natural Gas Securitization Finance Corp. and Illinois.

The muni market saw $379.992 billion of debt issued in 2023, only $11.076 billion less than the lackluster $391.068 billion seen in 2022.

Illinois saw an uptick in its financial fortunes during the past fiscal year, one of the few times the state's net position has improved in recent years.

A hotel tax that supports the authority's bonds has recovered strongly from the pandemic, the rating agency said.

So far, the temporary Bally's casino in Chicago has brought in about a quarter of the tax revenue it needs to generate to keep up with budget expectations.

Secondary trading showed clear strength across the yield curve Thursday with bellwether names trading up significantly from recent prints and original pricing levels. New-issues in the primary benefited with issuers repricing to lower yields and tight to triple-A curves.

The municipal bond rally has brought two big Illinois issuers into the market with plans to sell refunding bonds this week.

Joe Ferguson, who served as Chicago's inspector general under three mayoral administrations, replaces Laurence Msall, who died earlier this year.

The Plan of Action for Regional Transit asks lawmakers for $1.5 billion of new operating support for transit and at least $400 million annually of complementary capital investments.

The weakness came as the new-issue calendar grew to $5.9 billion with the addition of a $900 million refunding deal from the Illinois State Highway Toll Highway Authority slated for Thursday. Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply sits at $6.95 billion.

The top five bond financings have an average dollar volume of more than $1 billion.

The City Colleges of Chicago is planning to issue $201 million in unlimited tax GO refunding bonds, bolstered by an upgrade and a new positive rating outlook.

Illinois spreads tightened considerably after ratings upgrades earlier this year. The state saw up to 10 bidders on $875 million of taxable and tax-exempt GOs.