Markets

Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits fell by 13,000 to 199,000 in the Jan. 19 week, well below expectations for a 210,000 level.

Kettering Health Network will sell $200 million of new money and refunding bonds.

Deals from Hawaii, Colorado,and Virginia hit the market Wednesday as munis turned mostly weaker.

York County, fresh off the Moody's upgrade, competitively prices the first of two general obligation bond issues Thursday.

Municipal bond buyers were treated to some new supply on Wednesday as deals from issuers in Hawaii, Colorado and Virginia came to market.

Service sector “continued to grow modestly in January,” according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond service-sector activity survey, released Wednesday.

Manufacturing growth in the central Atlantic region “was soft in January,” according to the monthly business activity survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, as the manufacturing index climbed to negative 2 from negative 8.

Municipal bonds lost early strength and finished mixed on Tuesday as traders returned to work after the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday.

Municipals were stronger Tuesday ahead of this week’s $5 billion new issue calendar.

Existing home sales fell 6.4% to a seasonally adjusted 4.99 million-unit rate in December.