Markets

Columbus is offering $423 million to municipal bond investors in a mix of new money, refunding, tax-exempt and taxable debt.

The new-issue calendar tops $9 billion led by $3 billion taxable and tax-exempts from University of California Regents, a $1 billion plus healthcare deal from Michigan and $1.35 billion of GOs from Washington State.

Fitch and S&P have now joined Moody’s in downgrading the Renton, Washington-based healthcare system’s $6 billion of bonds.

Investors pulled more from municipal bond mutual funds in the latest week, with Refinitiv Lipper reporting $3.548 billion of outflows, down from $4.106 billion of outflows in the previous week.

Moody's lifted Illinois one notch to Baa1, marking the state's third rating upgrade over the last year and first since lawmakers passed a state budget.

The Investment Company Institute reported investors pulled $7.2 billion from municipal bond mutual funds, the largest figure since the outlier months of March 2020 when investors yanked $24 billion in two weeks.

The audit was brought on by the Internal Revenue Service in September 2021 in connection with Series 2013B bonds.

The significant cheapening of municipals in recent weeks continues to create headwinds for the overall tax-exempt market on a daily basis.

ESG investing has grown complex enough that it’s time we recognize what strategy or product is best suited for a given situation.

Recognizing what ESG strategy or product is best suited for a given situation is a crucial first step for the market to establish long-needed standards and guide usage into the effective outcomes participants wish to see.