Markets

The rally stemmed from the weak nonfarm payrolls report and revisions brought down the three-month average to 29,000 jobs per month, further solidifying the chance of a rate cut in September, said Chris Brigati, managing director and CIO at SWBC.

Investors added $672.3 million to municipal bond mutual funds in the week ended Wednesday, following $590.4 million of inflows the prior week, according to LSEG Lipper data.

"We are expecting a lot of interest in the offering next week," said Geoff Urbina, managing director, KeyBanc Capital Markets Public Finance.

A injunction blocked the service cuts that would have balanced SEPTA's budget. 

Looking solely at internal factors, "the municipal market itself is still doing well, reasonably via the temporary drop in new issue supply amid a more lasting reduction in reinvestment flows," said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics.

BondLink's client issuers reached over $500 billion in bond sales while working with the municipal bond platform.

The underwriting firm's hires will expand its real estate development finance group and Southeast operations.

"It doesn't take but one comment or one market-moving data point to cause ETFs to shift the market pretty considerably," said Ajay Thomas, head of public finance at FHN Financial.

Thanks to strong technicals and the anticipated interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve at its September meeting, municipal bonds posted positive returns of 0.87% in August, reversing their losses of 0.20% in July, according to Jason Wong, vice president municipals at AmeriVet Securities.

"Another set of eyes helps improve the deal for everybody, including the borrower, because the borrower is going to want a successful venture too," said John Miller, head and chief investment officer of First Eagle's municipal credit team.