Markets

The March consumer price index offered little to deter the Federal Reserve from its aggressive plans, but markets saw it as a positive, having feared an upside miss.

The Fitch Ratings upgrade to A-plus applies to $80 million in debt issued for the University of Portland in Oregon.

The underwriters filed a defense to the court earlier this month and analysts are skeptical of MBIA’s chances of prevailing.

With the Federal Reserve planning aggressive rate hikes and balance sheet reduction, Dec Mullarkey, managing director of investment strategy and asset allocation at SLC Management, discusses the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes, his analysis of the economy and what to expect going forward. Gary Siegel hosts. (33 minutes)

Triple-A yields continue to rise, with the two-year muni just below 2%, the five well above and the 10-year approaching 2.5%.

Supply for the holiday-shortened week is $4.8 billion. Municipals performed the worst since 1980 in the first quarter of 2022, but some analysts see the pain subsiding.

The long bond on the exempt $955 million tranche have traded stronger in the secondary market since pricing.

Investors pulled more from municipal bond mutual funds in the latest week, with Refinitiv Lipper reporting $3.247 billion of outflows, of that $1 billion was high-yield. ETFs are still seeing inflows.

The university will decide on a final structure for a $500 million sale that could go as long as 100 years at the time of pricing, which is expected next week.

Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read called off a lottery bond sale planned in 2020 after lottery revenues cratered because of pandemic-related business closures.