Markets

The city of Los Angeles is set to offer $1.46 billion of tax and revenue anticipation notes on Tuesday, June 21, in what will be the largest TRAN offering in the United States this year.

Municipal bond investors are in a good position to wait out the Federal Reserve, after policy makers left the target interest rate unchanged and signaled increases will be gradual, strategists said.

California's new, higher legal smoking age of 21 heralds more trouble for tobacco securitization debt, said analyst Richard Larkin.

New Jersey bonds could see spread tightening after a state Supreme Court decision upholding the 2011 suspension of cost of living adjustments to retiree pension benefits, but any boost will likely be short-lived, according to Municipal Market Analytics.

Mesirow Financial has appointed Blake Anderson to a newly-created position leading client portfolio strategy in its institutional sales and trading group.

U.S. banks' holdings of municipal bonds increased to $507.5 billion in the first quarter of 2016, a 1.7% gain from the $499 billion of holdings in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The weekly average yield to maturity of The Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, fell four basis points to 3.86% from 3.90% in the previous week.

BlackRock’s municipal group said that although June may present some headwinds, any pullback in the market could be seen as restoring value and presenting a buying opportunity.

Although credit quality has stabilized since the Great Recession, pension liabilities threaten municipalities with reduced revenue supply and growing expenses.

In the latest installment of Muni Minute – The Bond Buyer's 60-second video series that examines a top municipal market story that will impact the coming week – we look at how the San Diego County Water Authority is reaping the benefits from the nation’s largest seawater desalination plant and is expected to hit market with a triple-A rating for the first time ever.