Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said he would like to raise interest rates at the central bank’s meetings in March and May but played down the benefits of a larger-than-expected move.

Triple-A benchmark curves were bumped two to five basis points outside of five years as markets calmed to start February.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin praised all five of President Biden's nominees for the Federal Reserve, an important signal for their confirmations in the 50-50 Senate.

Market volatility has led to munis seeing the worst performance to start the year since 2018 and the biggest monthly losses since March 2020.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly said the central bank could raise interest rates as early as March to fight high inflation, but she cautioned against overreacting and tightening policy too fast.

Bostic stuck to his prediction that three quarter-point increases starting in March is the most likely scenario, though stubbornly high consumer prices may justify a more robust rate rise.

Short-end muni yields have risen more than 30 basis points on some triple-A scales over the past five trading sessions.

The two biggest U.S. banks raised their forecasts of how quickly the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year, with Bank of America Corp. predicting a move at every meeting to tackle the highest inflation in four decades.

Returns are deep in the red with the Bloomberg Municipal Index at negative 1.85%, while high-yield sits at negative 1.81%.

Pat Toomey, the top Republican on the Senate Banking panel, questioned the backgrounds of President Biden’s Federal Reserve picks amid a brewing conflict over diversity at the central bank and its role in dealing with climate change.

John Hallacy of John Hallacy Consulting LLC sits down with Chip Barnett to talk about what the municipal bond market will face in 2022. He discusses inflation, new issuance volume, and the future of infrastructure this year amid the lingering effects of COVID and Omicron. (19 minutes)

Munis are expected to underperform for another few weeks as markets remain volatile and investors reevaluate allocations.

Why are markets so sanguine about the interest rate outlook? The answer lies in the Fed’s balance sheet, and in particular the level of excess reserves placed there by commercial banks.

Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown plans an early February hearing for President Joe Biden’s three most recent Federal Reserve picks and said he expects bipartisan confirmations of all five nominees to the central bank’s board.

Aoifinn Devitt, chief investment officer at Moneta Group, discusses the Federal Reserve’s plans to raise rates this year, whether this was truly a pivot in Fed thinking, how the market reacted to this change and will how they will respond when rates go up, how new members on the Federal Reserve Board could impact Fed plans and what this all means for investors. Gary Siegel hosts. (28 minutes.)

The largest deal of the week comes from the New York City Transitional Finance Authority with $950 million of exempts and $250 million of taxables.

Newly released transcripts of Federal Reserve policy meetings in 2016 show then-Governors Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard were quick to pivot away from planned interest-rate hikes in the face of risks posed by a stumbling Chinese economy.

President Biden will nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for Supervision and Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson to be governors. The selections keep a Biden promise to improve diversity at the Fed.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said the central bank should shrink its balance sheet as fast as it can without disrupting financial markets and repeated her backing to a March interest-rate increase.

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell would not commit to timing for liftoff, stressing decisions would be data-based and the Fed will not allow inflation to become entrenched.