State of California

May is when budget talks usually get serious in California, which has a budget highly dependent on income and capital gains taxes.

The deal to buy 200 million masks a month will help California's medical workers while pressuring its state budget.

Municipal bond issuance was $67.88 billion after the first two months of 2020 and was on pace to easily eclipse the $400 billion mark — then COVID-19 completely turned the market upside down.

The Department of Finance told department heads it will be re-evaluating budget requests under a workload budget scenario.

The timing of a $1.5 billion deal California had planned to price Thursday is no longer firm amid massive dislocations in the markets.

The stock market plunge amid the COVID-19 pandemic increases the risk of a revenue shock for California and other states that depend on capital gains taxes.

The municipal market was hammered Wednesday by the COVID-19 pandemic with a more than quarter point correction in AAA benchmarks, issuers pulling deals off the shelves and more reports of pricing and evaluation confusion.

Uncertainty continues to hang over financial markets due to COVID-19. Stocks rebounded somewhat Tuesday while muni yields rose as much as 16 basis points — Tuesday saw a correction of sorts.

The municipal bond market will see a slew of supply price this week as issuers and investors buffeted by uncertainty, volatility and outright panic. California is selling $2.2 billion of GO bonds, which investors will seek out as a safe haven in these unstable times.

As fear and uncertainty over COVID-19 rapidly grow, it has sent yields for both municipals and Treasuries to never before seen low levels — begging the question if we could see zero or negative yields here in the States?