Primary bond market

The Investment Company Institute reported another week of inflows, $800-plus million, as participants focus on that part of the market as an indicator of how munis will fare during tax season.

The theme of low supply, positive inflows and the anticipation of higher tax rates led triple-A benchmarks firmer by one to two basis points.

Kansas City will follow up a GO sale from last month with $186 million of tax-exempt, taxable new money and refunding special obligation bonds Wednesday.

The services sector showed improvement and employment made big gains in March, but economists note the labor market remains far from full employment.

With its growth only slightly hindered by the pandemic, the University of Texas System aims for savings with refunding deal.

Non-farm payrolls rose 916,000 in March, according to a Labor Department report Friday, while the unemployment rate fell to 6%.

Susan Courtney, head of the Municipal Bond Team at PGIM Fixed Income, talks inflation, muni credit in COVID times and infrastructure. (27 Minutes) Lynne Funk hosts.

Municipal bond industry leaders weighed in on their expectations for 2021 during a panel discussion at The Bond Buyer's National Outlook Conference.

Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, combined with the shortened week and the arrival of the second quarter, took attention away from the muni market.

The first quarter of 2021 concludes with $102.1 billion, slightly higher than the $95.3 billion that the market saw in the COVID-ravaged first quarter of 2020.