Primary bond market

"Bifurcated demand reflects the persistent bid strength from [separately managed accounts] and retail investors, not to mention more accounts marshaling cash and liquidity up front while the Fed perspective evolves," said MMA's Matt Fabian.

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.

The new-issue calendar will be a "good test to see if the higher absolute yields can pull buyers off the sidelines or if underwriters need to widen spreads significantly enough to reprice the entire market to clear the deals," according to Birch Creek strategists.

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.

Friday price talk for the unrated tax-exempt paper was between 11% and 15%.

"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.

John Fleming is pushing back against a proposal in the state Legislature to change the way the state Bond Commission oversees the issuance of debt by cities, counties and local governments and entities.

Jeffrey Scruggs, Managing Director and Head of Public Sector and Infrastructure Group at Goldman Sachs, sits down with Bond Buyer Executive Editor Lynne Funk on the state of the muni industry.

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.

"April has been one of the worst-performing months over the past five years, which we believe warrants continued caution," BlackRock strategists said.