Markets

November's total is below the 10-year average of $32.278 billion and is the lowest monthly total this year. The year's total is about $25 billion short of $500 billion.

A complex refinancing continues Chicago's break from past scoop-and-toss deals but front-loads savings to help balance its budget.

"Earlier this month, Chair [Jerome] Powell noted that there was no 'hurry' to cut rates," noted BMO Senior Economist Priscilla Thiagamoorthy. The minutes, she noted, "confirm a broad support for taking a more cautious approach in easing monetary policy."

Markets could see that "the risks of higher inflation and interest rates are implicit constraints on the Trump policy agenda, with the eventual policy outcomes potentially less inflationary than some investors previously feared," UBS strategists noted.

Supply has "declined materially, allowing dealers to take a breather, with their inventories dropping significantly, while retail investors do not seem to be spooked by rate volatility, lower taxes and possible threats to the tax-exempts, and continued putting money into tax-exempts at a brisk pace," said Mikhail Foux, managing director and head municipal research and strategy at Barclays.

George Joseph McLiney, Jr. founded municipal bond underwriting firm McLiney and Company. He was devoted to his family and small issuer clients.

High-yield funds saw $608.9 million of inflows compared with inflows of $150.3 million the week prior.

"Volatility creates all kinds of opportunities in the municipal space, not just for tax-loss harvesting, but for positioning and parts of the yield curve that might be undervalued or certain sectors or states that are poised to perform well going into yearend," said Tim McGregor, a managing partner at Riverbend Capital Advisors.

Municipals are outperforming USTs to a large degree this month, with investment grade munis seeing positive 0.81% returns in November and 1.63% year-to-date. USTs are in the red at -0.40% in November with only 0.96% positive returns in 2024.

The baseball team says the county's delays in approving the bonds set back construction and increased the costs.