Markets

The employment report showed 140,000 decline in nonfarm payrolls in December, but economists found some positives in the numbers.

The state will sell $182.2 million of highly rated general obligation bonds in three separate offerings.

The tentative schedule includes $2.3 billion of new money and $4.6 billion of refundings and reofferings, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.

It was inevitable that muni yields would need to rise somewhat as the UST 10-year broke above 1%, however participants said the supply/demand imbalance will keep munis from rising as quickly as Treasuries. More than $1 billion inflows reported.

John Hallacy, founder of John Hallacy Consulting LLC, talks about the most important opportunities and challenges the municipal bond market will face in 2021. He gives his estimate on where muni volume may be headed, discusses the possibility of a federal infrastructure program and talks about what to expect under a Biden Administration. Chip Barnett hosts. (Recorded Dec. 22; 22 minutes)

FOMC members backed maintaining asset purchases, although “a couple” were “open” to “weighting purchases of Treasury securities toward longer maturities,” according to minutes released Wednesday.

The growth in issuance in 2020 spread out over the top 10 underwriters, with bulge-bracket firms sharing the wealth.

Without the benefit of a larger new-issue calendar, secondary trading is likely to continue the theme of the final two months of 2020: more bidders than bonds.

LACMA, one of Los Angeles' most prominent museums, will refund debt and move forward on construction of a building for its permanent collection.

From the Centennials to the COVID generation, the municipal market's demographics will change dramatically in the next decade as will the way investors view investing in munis.