Primary bond market

As the market prepares for a smaller primary calendar in the holiday-shortened week, fund flows again are worth exploring as a strong demand component for 2021.

Moody's moved its outlook to positive on Minnesota's Aa1 rating, and S&P went to stable from negative on its AAA rating ahead of the state's annual bond sale.

Analysts cited long-term structural balance and high reserves in lifting S&P's outlook on the Golden State's AA-minus rating.

Refinitiv Lipper reported just over $1 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds, an $800 million drop from a week prior, moving the four week moving average to $1.6 billion.

ICI reported $1.99 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds, bringing the total to $69 billion for 2021.

The Kentucky Public Transportation Infrastructure Authority and the Kentucky Turnpike Authority plan refunding revenue bond sales this month.

Daily bid-wanteds totals per Bloomberg have fallen to an average par value below $450 million from $640 million per day during the first quarter and $549 million in the second.

The settled proceeding against Anthony Falsetta, announced Tuesday, is the latest in a string of SEC cases targeting violations of retail order periods.

Moody's assigned its Baa1 rating to the California Institute of the Arts, which traces its lineage to Walt Disney, ahead of the university's $33 million debut in the public debt markets.

Cooper Howard, director of fixed income strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, talks with Chip Barnett about what municipal bond investors can expect in the second half of the year – low yields and strong fundamentals. He looks at continuing bond fund inflows, rising taxable issuance and compressed spreads. (14 minutes/Taped Aug. 3).