Buy side

Inflows returned to muni mutual funds as investors added $200.3 million for the week ending Wednesday after $1.474 billion of outflows, according to LSEG Lipper.

"Each party in this deal benefits in some way," said Seema Mohanty, founder of Mohanty Gargiulo.

The trio have decades of experience in high yield and investment grade portfolios and will launch new high-yield investment strategies and vehicles for Rockefeller.

A combination of a "stronger-than-expected economy, higher Treasury rates, robust supply, and rich valuations resulting in choppy markets" have made the trading environment in H124 "quite difficult," according to Barclays.

"Folloing recent yield moves, a generic muni index is now down 1% on the month with no real sub-sector showing much deviation from that result," said Kim Olsan, senior vice president of trading at FHN Financial.

Despite higher yields, muni to UST ratios remain rich. Ratios look "progressively richer" moving into the five- to 10-year part on the curve, with the 10-year spot "still far more attractive in taxables versus tax-exempts," J.P. Morgan said.

The growing federal debt level may pressure lawmakers to retract or reduce the tax-exemption for munis to generate revenue, some market participants argue.

Adding the funds will let Easterly offer municipal bond investment options.

The criteria should result in a nearly equal number of upgrades and downgrades in the next half year, according to the rating agency.

Two mega deals recently priced with make-whole calls for bonds due in 2034 and shorter where the market does not appear "to be penalizing issuers for including an optional make whole call feature in the short maturity tax-exempt bonds," said Pat Luby, head of Municipal Strategy at CreditSights, in a report.

Most of the selling during tax season happens on the front end of the curve, said Wesly Pate, senior portfolio manager at Income Research + Management.

The Washington refunding deal is built on an extraordinary optional redemption of Build America Bonds despite criticism from investors who hold them.

The extraordinary redemptions being used to call Build America Bonds "are based on a creative but flawed legal argument driven by the current change in interest rates," said Kramer Levin partner Amy Caton.

Citi's exit comes amid the larger trend of broker-dealers downsizing balance sheets, which can hurt secondary market liquidity, particularly in times of stress. Other market players are coming into the fold.

Narens' hiring complements Stifel's public finance practice and the types of deals the firm is doing, said Betsy Kiehn, managing director and head of Stifel's Municipal Capital Markets Group.

Market participants said it is yet to be seen whether issuers will pull back their BABs refundings due to concerns after several bondholders sent a letter to the trustee on a Regents of the University of California deal, saying it was "prohibited" from executing the redemption.

High-yield and taxable munis continue to outperform, supply grows but concentrates in larger deals led by $3 billion of state personal income tax revenue bonds from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York next week.

One investor is offloading the debt, while another sees an opportunity.

Several investors in a challenge to a University of California Regents Build America Bonds redemption "may give issuers additional reason for pause when vetting similar refundings," J.P. Morgan strategists said.

Harvard and Princeton coming to market is a "huge sign of confidence," said Clare Pickering, a Barclays strategist.