City of New York, NY

At $1.8 billion, the tax-exempt and taxable deal is the largest on the calendar this week and it's the latest offering from the city since a $1.2 billion refunding issuance in July. 

The Palisades Tunnel project and phase two of the Hudson River Ground Stabilization project will officially begin later this year.

The city's pensions funds for police officers, fire fighters, teachers, civil employees and school personnel, with a combined $274 billion in assets, returned 10% in the year through June, beating their 7% target, according to a news release Thursday from city Comptroller Brad Lander.

Yields may move lower after the Federal Reserve "communicates its goals to ease policy in coming meetings," said Tom Kozlik, managing director and head of public policy and municipal strategy at HilltopSecurities.

The city will return to the market two weeks after closing its Transitional Finance Authority's biggest-ever deal.

The City Council-approved deal spends big on education and housing and reverses earlier cuts, but analysts are wary of the city's budget practices.

Signature Bank owned nearly $15 billion of mortgages across four of New York's five boroughs, making it the largest lender to rent-regulated housing in the city.

Recipients included Marjorie Henning, retired deputy comptroller for public finance for the New York City Comptroller's office; Albert Simons, retired partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; and New York City Budget Director Jacques Jiha. 

Two mega deals recently priced with make-whole calls for bonds due in 2034 and shorter where the market does not appear "to be penalizing issuers for including an optional make whole call feature in the short maturity tax-exempt bonds," said Pat Luby, head of Municipal Strategy at CreditSights, in a report.

In a recently released survey by the Citizens Budget Commission, New Yorkers said they are feeling much less safe, with only 37% rating public safety in their neighborhood as excellent or good, down from 50% in 2017.

Congestion pricing proponents claim it will reduce gridlock, improve air quality in Manhattan and boost ridership on the MTA, which has never recovered its pre-pandemic ridership levels.

The onslaught of new-issuance and approaching month- and quarter-end led triple-A yields to rise up to seven basis points on the short end and as much as three to five elsewhere along the curve, despite stronger U.S. Treasuries. Short ratios rose as a result.

This week's new-issue calendar grows and includes some "common benchmark names like CA GO, NYC GO, and WA GO," Birch Creek strategists said.

The calendar is led by several high-profile deals, including $2.7 billion of GOs from California, $1.5 billion from New York City and $1.1 billion from Washington. High-yield gets another dose of unrated project finance debt from Miami Worldcenter Project tax increment revenue bonds. The Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply sits at $12.06 billion.

Set to be priced by Jefferies on Monday for retail investors and on Tuesday for institutions, New York City's tax-exempt general obligation bond deal is tentatively structured in four series with two subseries.

To maintain the city's good credit rating and robust fiscal health, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is also proposing a stronger debt management policy to make sure the city keeps its debt service below 15% of tax revenues.

Despite several larger deals entering the primary, the vast amount of cash on hand has not allowed munis to cheapen amid UST volatility and ultra-rich ratios

The securities industry accounted for roughly $28.8 billion in state tax revenue and $5.4 billion in New York City tax revenue for fiscal 2023, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli estimated.

The city has again proven to have a resilient economy, with better than budgeted revenues, said Howard Cure, a partner and director of municipal bond research at Evercore Wealth Management LLC.

The city and its related issuers picked financial advisors to work on upcoming bond deals, including GO issuances, TFA deals and water authority sales.