As asset managers track winners and losers and the potential for the corporate bond default rate to spike, they consider differing factors.

Investors will be greeted Monday with a steep drop in volume, with the new-issue calendar estimated at $4.583 billion — less than half of this week's supply.

Total April volume was $34.329 billion in 729 deals versus $37.105 billion in 1,124 issues a year earlier.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown said Wednesday that the Senate would wait to confirm President Biden’s Federal Reserve picks until the return of Democrats recovering from the coronavirus.

Lael Brainard was confirmed as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Tuesday in a 52-43 Senate vote, the first of four central bank nominees set for consideration by the chamber.

A trio of COVID-19 cases among Democrats is expected to delay Senate plans to confirm Federal Reserve nominee Lisa Cook and Federal Trade Commission nominee Alvaro Bedoya this week.

Joe Manchin, a key Democrat in the U.S. Senate, said he’s spoken to Michael Barr, President Joe Biden’s choice to be the U.S. Federal Reserve chief banking supervisor, and so far doesn’t see a problem with his nomination.

The Treasury’s latest tax collection may preview how the shrinking of the Federal Reserve’s $9 trillion balance sheet, or quantitative tightening, will unfold for the markets and global liquidity.

“I would say that 50 basis points will be on the table for the May meeting,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday.

State and local governments are flush with cash and well-positioned to embrace the coming storm, experts say.

The significant cheapening of municipals in recent weeks continues to create headwinds for the overall tax-exempt market on a daily basis.

The Federal Reserve has hired five executives from the stablecoin issuer Circle and at least one employee of Ripple since 2019 as part of its technology-focused recruiting efforts. It plans to do more hiring in the years ahead to aid its work on faster payments and central bank digital currencies.

The White House says the president will nominate Michael Barr, a Treasury Department veteran and one of the architects of the Dodd-Frank Act, as the central bank's vice chair for supervision.

With the Federal Reserve planning aggressive rate hikes and balance sheet reduction, Dec Mullarkey, managing director of investment strategy and asset allocation at SLC Management, discusses the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes, his analysis of the economy and what to expect going forward. Gary Siegel hosts. (33 minutes)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took a procedural step before the Senate leaves for a two-week break seeking to limit debate on Lael Brainard’s nomination for vice chair, as well as Lisa Cook’s nomination for Fed governor when lawmakers return. 

Investors pulled more from municipal bond mutual funds as the Investment Company Institute reported $4.5 billion of outflows in the week ending March 30.

Details on how officials expect to proceed are expected to be revealed on Wednesday when the Fed publishes minutes of its March 15-16 meeting.

Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown said he and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are pushing to confirm all four Federal Reserve nominees this week, but doing so will require Republican cooperation.

Next week's supply is slated to be $10.166 billion, $8.982 billion of negotiated deals and $1.184 billion of competitive loans. A larger primary calendar is led by two billion-dollar airport deals.

With massive secondary selling pressure and a larger calendar, credit spreads are likely to continue to widen.