Municipal bond funds

As some states see new coronavirus lockdowns, municipals maintain stalwart position.

Cooper Howard, director of fixed income strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, talks about the bifurcation in the market and what investors should look at during the rest of the year.

Municipal bond funds and ETFs saw combined inflows of $2.942 billion in the week ended June 17, ICI said.

Municipal bonds finished a very active week little changed as participants caught their breath after seeing almost $12 billion of new issues come to market.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.7 billion of municipal bond fund inflows. while municipal prices were little changed Thursday.

Matt Boardman, head of fixed income for RBC Wealth Management, talks with Chip Barnett, about how the municipal bond market has changed over the past few months in light of the coronavirus pandemic. He talks about how the economic effects due to COVID-19 caused a "sudden and violent" dislocation in munis for over two months and how we’ve now returned to being a more rational and reasonable market and remains vibrant and strong.

The day's big new-issue slate was led by the pricing of the New York State Urban Development Corp.'s $1.3 billion deal.

New York, Texas and Pennsylvania issues headline the new-issue slate.

Yields on the long end of the curve dropped as much as seven basis points while very short yields rose.

The market looks forward to Thursday's $3.3 billion note deal from DASNY after handling a sizable calendar Wednesday.

In secondary trading municipals ended weaker after a strong employment report.

The municipal market kept with a cautious tone on Thursday as the new-issue market continues to digest deals.

While many new-issues are still on the day-to-day calendar for next week, more are being slated to price on specific days, signaling that dealers and issuers are ready to again test the primary.

Benchmark yields fell another 50 to 60 basis points, dropping them more than 1.5% in just four days. Meanwhile, a $450 million taxable new-issue came to market and was eight times oversubscribed.

It's a win-win situation for both buyers and sellers as volume continues to flow into the market.

The muni market was weaker again on Wednesday with yields on the rise, yet that did not slow down the primary. It did not matter if it was tax-exempt or taxable — they were gone in a flash.

Municipal bond buyers will see a $7 billion new-issue calendar ahead.

With demand at an all-time high and record inflows that is continuing to come into the market, one would think there would be more issuance.

Chicago GOs were upsized and repriced on Wednesday to bump yields as indications of interest were taken on the Sales Tax Securitization sale.

Municipal bond buyers have plenty of cash in hand and will have various options as to where to put that money to work.