Markets

The one-notch upgrade from Fitch Ratings comes as the county plans to to sell up to $900 million in two lease revenue bond deals this summer.

"Even after this week's rally, absolute yields look attractive in the context of the trading range over the past three years, May's underperformance versus taxable fixed-income, and our longer-term projections for lower rates this year," J.P. Morgan strategists said.

Household ownership of munis — which includes direct ownership of individual bonds in brokerage accounts, fee-based advisory accounts and SMAs — rose to $1.779 trillion, up 0.3% from Q4 2023 and from 5.6% in Q1 2023.

"It is important to remember that as long as the Fed's next move is to lower policy rates, bonds will do well," said Jack McIntyre, portfolio manager at Brandywine Global. "The employment market is in better balance, which is very important for the Fed — even more than inflation."

The Biden administration's accelerated deadlines for exiting dirty energy like coal could pressure utilities already facing growing demand, the rating agency said.

Driven by ongoing capital expenditure funding and current refunding opportunities, airport issuance is estimated at $21 billion in 2024, with a slew of from June through September and more planned in December, according to Ramirez.

"We will remain cautious until CPI and the FOMC are in the rear-view mirror and as long as these don't catalyze a sell-off (since that would trigger outflows) or catalyze a sharp rally (as municipals lag rates during a sharp rally and ratios can increase optically) ... " said Vikram Rai, head of municipal markets strategy at Wells Fargo.

Even after paring down the capital plan, the MTA will need to issue debt, and sooner than planned. It will be issued under the MTA's transportation revenue credit rather than its congestion pricing credit, so near-term debt service costs will be higher, CEO Janno Lieber said.

Many issuers are trying to understand rating agency methodology changes that could affect more than a third of them.

Munis should see better performance this week as issuance falls to $5.2 billion this week and cash still needs to be reinvested, said Jason Wong, vice president of Municipals at AmeriVet Securities.