State of Texas

Bond volume was 4.2% lower than it was a year ago but increased from March and April’s low totals.

The primary supply for the holiday-shortened week is projected to dip to just over $4 billion, with a mix of tax-exempt and taxable issuance led by Colorado’s $500 million of certificates of participation.

The primary was up and running Monday with Connecticut’s $850M offering for retail while many Texas issuers were active on the heels of the Fed news that it is open for business for munis.

Uncertainty and volatility have caused a bifurcated market when it comes to credit, and widespread disparity between high-quality and high-yield is complicating matters for issuers.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments this fall in California v. Texas.

Texas suffered its worst sales tax plunge in 10 years as the pandemic began to grip the state's economy.

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.

Pessimism about the economic situation in the United States continues to affect the way consumers view the economy and their financial position.

Several of the Lone Star State's manufacturing indexes dropped to record lows in April, a Dallas Fed survey showed.

Sales taxes are a pillar of the Texas state budget, and the usually stable revenue source has taken a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez will join Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson on Locke Lord's Texas public finance team.

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 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.

Less than six years after the last oil price collapse, producing states of the Southwest are facing another sharp drop and the prospect of recession.

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.

The municipal bond market is in for another action-packed week, with above-average issuance and COVID-19 still spreading rapidly.

Taxable bonds and COVID-19 are two of the main catalysts that helped February municipal bond volume ascend to its highest level since at least 1986.