Buy side

Chicago's general obligation bond ratings will remain pressured until the city fully fixes its pension mess, top city finance officials told alderman, while warning City Council not to expect to use reserves to ease the pain of a coming $550 million pension spike.

A refunding deal assembled by the County of Los Angeles Redevelopment Refunding Authority triggered some positive rating actions for debt issued by the former Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles.

Lumesis and Municipal Bond Information Service have entered into a strategic partnership to increase the transparency around pre-trade indicative price information, and post-trade operational practices.

This week's new-issue activity will be led by a billion-dollar transportation bond sale from California and a trio of large deals in the Northeast region.

Moody's Investors Service released a report saying transparency in the municipal market has been diminished by the growth of bank loans and private placements.

Inflows into municipal market funds dropped this week by 41.7%.

The weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, dropped nine basis points the week ending October 16 to 4.28%

Triet Nguyen and Chris Foster discuss their quantitative approach to munis, how they are getting cross-over investors interested in municipal bonds, and why they are looking at the military housing sector.

More than $6 billion of long-term new issuance is expected to arrive in the primary market this week, led by a $1.1 billion New York State Dormitory Authority financing that should be highly sought-after by supply hungry investors, municipal traders said on Friday.

Other Post Employment Benefit liabilities, particularly retiree healthcare, could overtake pension liabilities as an issue for municipalities and investors,

The weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, dropped three basis points in the week ending Oct. 9 to 4.37%.

Inflows into municipal mutual funds more than tripled this week.

While younger investors are often risk-takers seeking high returns in the fast-paced equity market, owning municipal bonds can be an important part of a young entrepreneur's investment portfolio, municipal strategists said.

The evolving understanding of climate change poses challenges in evaluating and disclosing municipal securities risk, said panelists at The Bond Buyer's California Public Finance Conference.

The most-traded P3 bonds have rallied this year, and retained gains since the Sept. 22 bankruptcy filing by the manager of the Indiana Toll Road.

Rather than getting yield by buying in the longer-middle to back-end of the curve as barbell investors typically do, Newtown Square, Pa.-based Veritable is purchasing bonds maturing from five to seven years for the long end of its barbell.

While municipal volume is expected to be just above $5 billion this week, traders say with a substantial amount of those bonds being issued as taxable, supply suited to traditional muni investors will be closer to $4 billion.

Muni managers and analysts say the absence of retail participation in the muni market has been palpable and that the net negative supply, historical low municipal to Treasury ratios, narrow spreads, and headline risk are contributing to the pull back.

The weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, dropped three basis points in the week ending October 2 to 4.40%.

California's water utility sector is maintaining a strong credit profile, despite pressures from the state's ongoing drought, according to market participants.