Markets

Triple-A benchmarks have fallen five to 10 basis points, depending on the scale.

Investors will be greeted Monday with a new-issue calendar estimated at $6.041 billion.

A $3.52 billion Texas Natural Gas Securitization Finance Corp. deal includes a make-whole redemption over three years to call bonds if the state appropriates funds to pay them off.

Governance decisions and rapidly escalating deficits contributed to Moody's decision to cut Illinois Tech's rating two notches to speculative grade.

Outflows continued as Refinitiv Lipper reported $307.815 million was pulled from municipal bond mutual funds in the week that ended Wednesday after $905.030 million of outflows the week prior.

Fitch said the action "reflects the recent enactment of legislation clarifying the future operational profile of the district," formerly controlled by Disney.

Outflows lessened, with the Investment Company Institute reporting investors pulled $344 million from mutual funds in the week ending March 1, after $1.148 billion of outflows the previous week.

The two-year UST is now a full point above the 10-year UST, something that hasn't happened since 1981.

Passing the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act could boost housing bond issuance.

Ellis Phifer, managing director and senior strategist in the fixed income research department at Raymond James, talks with Chip Barnett about the state of the bond markets. (Taped Feb. 16; 15 minutes)