State of California

April finished with $23.7 billion of issuance, a 15% decline from the $27.9 billion in April 2019. Volatility from the pandemic has caused erratic swings in benchmark yields, resulting in the lowest muni volume total in the month since 2011.

California's response to COVID-19 became a factor in Verity Health System's Chapter 11 proceedings.

Secondary market trading showed yields rising slightly, but the primary market again showed signs of life, as demand for the asset class seems to be gaining ground.

A stratified credit differentiation can be expected to linger for the foreseeable future until revenue streams in sales-tax and other project-backed bonds are more fully restored. Pension obligation bonds are back in California.

Hard on the heels of last week's successful California sale, the municipal bond market will see some much needed supply head its way this week.

While many new-issues are still on the day-to-day calendar for next week, more are being slated to price on specific days, signaling that dealers and issuers are ready to again test the primary.

The secondary market took a backseat to the primary Thursday with yields holding steady while Lipper reported $833 million of inflows, the first since February 26.

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?

The world remains on edge about the rapidly spreading COVID-19 and those fears once again have Treasury yields digging down even deeper. COVID-19 fears have now impacted fund flows, as municipals suffers outflows for the first time in 60 weeks.

It was a busy day in the primary, as the markets continue to deal with crosscurrents of COVID-19 and election results.

The Federal Open Market Committee cut the fed funds rate 50 basis points to a range between 1% and 1.25%. The decision to cut rates was unanimous.