Bond volume

Total April volume was $34.329 billion in 729 deals versus $37.105 billion in 1,124 issues a year earlier.

Total March volume was $39.363 billion in 793 deals versus $47.763 billion in 1,218 issues a year earlier but above the $34.363 billion average.

In a Bond Buyer survey, 57% of participants believe issuance will be less than $475 billion. Additionally, 47% said ESG would have the greatest impact on the public finance industry in 2022.

February volume was $26.481 billion in 594 deals versus $37.052 billion in 981 issues a year earlier, bringing total volume for the first two months of the year to $51.426 billion, or 20% less than 2021.

Municipal bond issuance in the region was down 11.7% year-over-year in 2021, as new money, refunding, taxable and tax-exempt volume all slipped.

Issuers in California sold more than $86 billion of municipal bonds in 2021.

Overall volume in the Southeast rose 1.8% last year even as taxable issuance plunged and refunding deals shriveled up.

Municipal bond issuance in the Midwest reversed course last year, falling by 7.4% to $77.5 billion.

Municipal bond issuers in the Southwest sold $90.8 billion of debt in 2021, down 3.2% from 2020 as lost refunding volume outpaced a gain in new-money sales.

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

January issuance declined by 14.7% year-over-year amid a rising-rate and volatile environment.

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)

BofA Securities led with $62.01 billion of deals. Out of the top five, only Morgan Stanley increased its market share year-over-year.

The U.S. Treasury selloff caught up to tax-exempts with two to three basis point cuts to scales, but munis still outperform.

Municipal volume is estimated at $1.13 billion for the opening week of 2022. Persistently strong net supply challenges will bias credit spreads tighter, credit discipline weaker in the next few years, analysts say.

2022 volume projections are clouded by many uncertainties. What is not murky is that demand for municipals is unlikely to fade.

Investors will also receive $139 billion of interest payments in 2022, about $593 million more than in 2021, according to a report from CreditSights.

Total November volume was up 58.3% to $33.818 billion versus $21.359 billion a year earlier, but the figure is average over a 10-year period. A combination of factors from policy uncertainty in Washington to fears of rising rates led to the increase.

A majority of firms anticipate less volume in 2022 than the record hit in 2020, but how policies from Washington and the path of overall economic activity in a still-recovering global economy with COVID overhang make predicting volume more difficult.

CDFA is advocating for a holistic solution from Congress to address private activity bond challenges.