It was a good day for munis with larger deals clearing the primary and secondary trading showing a more constructive tone with triple-A yields falling a few basis points amid a stronger session for all markets.

Sen. Paul's provision would block the central bank from buying state and local debt, a tool that muni advocates say is important to preserve in case of future pandemic-like events.

Policymakers appear to be concerned about the possibility of cutting interest rates too soon, according to minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's Jan. 30-31 meeting, released Wednesday.

The consumer price index number further complicates market expectations of Fed rate cuts and muni investors may want "to keep their powder dry" until they have a better idea of the Fed's timing, said CreditSights' Pat Luby.

The Federal Reserve expects to cut interest rates three times this year, some say as early as March, if data alllow those moves. Following the Jan. 30-31 FOMC meeting, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions, will provide his take on the meeting and Chair Jerome Powell's press conference.

A majority of those polled at The Bond Buyer's 2024 National Outlook Conference also felt issuance would increase moderately this year, to between $400 billion and $450 billion.

"Yields are attractive, and there's going to be a lot of demand and there's not going to be a lot of bonds," said Scott Diamond, co-head of the municipal fixed income team at Goldman Sachs.

The discussion of rate cuts, both timing and amount, has analysts offering varying estimates.

"I believe policy is set properly," Waller said. "It is restrictive and should continue to put downward pressure on demand to allow us to continue to see moderate inflation readings."

The December consumer price index came in slightly stronger than expected, perhaps eliminating the possibility of a rate cut in March, analysts said.

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The muni market enters this year from a relative position of strength, said Jeff Lipton, managing director and head of municipal research and strategy at Oppenheimer.

Musalem, an economist, is a former executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

This year has favorable potential for 1Q activity, noting an unusually large scheduled reinvestment potential in January and February, including $19 billion of maturities plus calls in January and $24.9 billion in February, noted MMA's Matt Fabian.

"A soft landing is increasingly conceivable but in no way inevitable," Barkin, who will vote on policy decisions this year, said in the text of a speech Wednesday.

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"It's important that we start to move rates down," Harker said Wednesday in a local radio interview. "We don't have to do it too fast, and we're not going to do it right away."

The Federal Open Market Committee meets Dec. 12 and 13 and in addition to their statement, they will issue a Summary of Economic Projections.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said it's too early for officials to begin thinking about cutting rates as soon as March as they consider whether policy is restrictive enough to get inflation back to 2%.

Muni yields fell up to five basis points and dramatically underperformed USTs, as they are wont to do on FOMC days. Treasury yields fell as much as 29 basis points on the two-year and sent the 10-year down closer to the 4% threshold.