New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority

The recommendation would build reserves toward a target of 16% of tax revenues in order to prevent drastic service cuts during a recession.

The City Council on Wednesday began the first of a series of hearings on Mayor Eric Adams' $98.5 billion preliminary fiscal 2023 budget.

The new-issue calendar is $5.45 billion while 30-day visible supply sits at $11.14 billion. The largest deal of the week comes from the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority with $793.83 million.

The proposed issuance would refinance some of the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority’s outstanding bonds.

Marjorie Henning was named deputy comptroller for public finance and Michael Haddad is interim chief investment officer and deputy comptroller for asset management.

While move-outs still outpace move-ins, the rate at which people are leaving has slowed and returned to near pre-pandemic patterns. A return by workers to offices is also rising, but occupancy in the city remains lower than almost all major metropolitan areas in the U.S. except for San Jose and San Francisco in California.

Large new issues from California, New York utilities and airport deals were repriced to lower yields and remained the focus for the municipal market, again ignoring a swing by U.S. Treasuries.

A larger new-issue calendar greets investors with a lot of cash on hand and strategists expect municipal yields to rise as the calendar builds.

Gilt-edged munis fell as much as two basis points Wednesday as the month ended and the first half stats were put into the record books.

A majority of the week's largest new issues priced at yields mostly at or around benchmarks as secondary trading did little to move scales. In economic data released Tuesday, the June consumer confidence index climbed, suggesting spending will rebound.

Making it a summer Friday, munis were quiet. Participants contemplate why the market underperformed taxables to the degree they did when fundamentals are objectively strong and little has changed since before the FOMC.

Municipal bond issuers in the State of New York accounted for half of the top 10, while issuers from California held two of the top four spots.

The Investment Company Institute reported outflows from municipal bond mutual funds but inflows into exchange-traded funds. The February consumer price index came in as expected, while the core was below expectations, and analysts expect bigger rises ahead.

Munis were stronger across the curve as secondary trading was constructive and bellwether credits moved yields lower.

With the reset in yields in the rear view, valuations — especially relative to Treasury — will likely support continued robust demand.

High-grade deals priced and secondary trading showed bonds exchanging hands at yields higher than triple-A benchmarks in some cases, but a healthy two-way flow was evident, even if there are signals that yields have not yet hit a ceiling.

Muni yields rose another five basis points on the 10- and 30-year, bringing the total cuts to scales to 18 and 17 basis points, respectively, from Tuesday as the asset class moved closer to UST movements after lagging that market since the start of the year.

Munis are likely to lag Treasuries in some fashion once year-end empathy settles in mid-month and ratios become a factor.

After volume in November came in around $19 billion, the lowest since 1999, investors look to December.

The Investment Company Institute reported municipal bond funds saw $2.675 billion of inflows in the latest reporting week.