Bond volume

Municipal issuers continue to swarm the muni market with taxable muni deals, as July accounted for $42.6 billion — the highest total for the month since at least 1986.

The municipal market saw a $40 billion-plus month for the second time this year, as issuers flooded the market with bond sales during the month of June.

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

Issuance in the public finance sector is likely to contract in 2020, S&P Research says.

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.

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.

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.

Issuers in the Far West sold $85 billion of municipal bonds in 2019, a 23% increase from 2018.

Refundings and taxable deals were also up substantially, driving the region to $75 billion of municipal bond volume, up 32.6% from 2018.

Taxable refundings caught on in the Midwest as they did elsewhere in the nation, helping the region post a 19% volume gain.

Issuers in the region sold $78.2 billion of bonds in 2019, a 24% year-over-year gain driven by growth in Texas and Colorado.

For the third time in four years, long-term municipal bond volume has surpassed the $400 billion mark — this time thanks to a second half surge in taxable issuance that took the market by storm.

While these were the percentage growth leaders, education and transportation had the biggest dollar growth.

The region's bond issuers sold $113.3 billion of debt in 2019, a 16.8% increase from 2018 fueled largely by a spike in taxable deals.

Thanks to the taxable tear, the municipal market saw the third highest volume for the month of January in the past 10 years.

The municipal bond market eclipsed the $400 billion mark for the fourth time since 2010, thanks to taxable trend that led to a vault in fourth quarter volume.

State government issuers are expected to sell $4.68 billion of new money bonds in fiscal 2020, a 6.5% increase, according to the Texas Bond Review Board.

Continued gains attributed to increase in taxable refunding issuance.

The volume boom accelerated in October, with taxables accounting for about a quarter of the supply.

Municipal bond volume continues to accelerate, closing out the month of September 39.1% higher and the quarter 17.8% higher than a year earlier, as issuers flocked to market with taxable deals.