Markets

Municipal market participants are preparing and bracing for a market without advance refundings and perhaps private activity bonds as major tax changes draw closer. Municipal issuers are coming together and giving the market one last gasp of these types of bonds before they are no longer allowed to do so and in the process, have created what could potentially be a historic $17.4 billion of issuance.

New York City offered $850 million of general obligation bonds and the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, Mo., offered a $317 million refunding deal to retail investors on Monday as the Pennsylvania Turnpike came to market with its bonds.

Investors plan to make the most of the volume blitz and higher yields in the last month of the year, as issuers rush to market ahead of a sweeping tax law overhaul.

Tender rates for the Treasury Department's latest 91-day and 182-day discount bills rose on Monday, as the three-months incurred a 1.290% high rate, up from 1. 285% the previous week, and the six-months incurred a 1.450% high rate, up from 1. 435% in the prior week.

The Treasury Department said Monday it will sell $35 billion of four-week discount bills on Tuesday.

Factory orders fell 0.1% in October, a smaller decline than the expected 0.3% drop.

The New York economy is expanding with “across the board increases,” and employment at its best level in more than two years, the Institute for Supply Management-New York’s Report on Business index, released Monday, indicated.

As municipal market participants are awaiting the next step in the tax bill process, they are also preparing for one of the busiest and biggest weeks the market has ever seen.

As lawmakers worked over the details of tax tax legislation, municipal market participants prepared to embark on what may be a record-setting week for issuance.

The state increased the size of the deals by 70%, with its bond finance director citing plans by "the clowns in D.C." to outlaw advance refundings.