Markets

Modest action in the municipal secondary market, particularly out in longer maturities, is propelling an otherwise quiet session.

The largest trend facing the municipal world right now is efforts on multiple fronts to become more transparent, according to speakers at a Wednesday panel at the National Federation of Municipal Analyst's annual conference.

The municipal market started slowly out of the gates Thursday morning as traders reported modest activity in taxable paper in the secondary.

Moody's Analytics, a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation, launched a new CreditView service for the public finance sector.

Long-term municipal bond issuance fell slightly for the month of April, yet still clings to a small increase for the year.

LOS ANGELES - Standard & Poor’s attributes much of the above-average creditworthiness of U.S. state governments to the unique countercyclical economic and fiscal support that the federal government offers the states, while warning that such support may be waning.

With tax season having passed, muni industry watchers anticipate the outflows to fade soon and interest beyond the front end of the yield curve to rise.

A $1.2 billion Iowa financing will headline the primary market activity this week as part of an overall projected volume of almost $5.8 billion, but could face challenges after a Texas fertilizer explosion two weeks ago and mixed reaction to economic news on Friday.

The tax-exempt market struggled to gain momentum all week as a limited primary calendar and uncertainty over the direction of interest rates in the secondary market kept buyers at bay.