Primary bond market

"June started out fairly strong for the municipal market as the relative cheapness attracted investors looking for an opening to start buying bonds at higher yields," said Roberto Roffo, managing director and portfolio manager at SWBC Investment Company.

The Housing Development Corp. will come to market with almost $1 billion of sustainable development bonds to fund new housing projects in the city.

The system is incorporating some floating-rate risk into its fixed-rate debt portfolio to allow for strategic flexibility after its new hospital campus opens.

Last week, munis underperformed the Treasury market "across the curve through Thursday with yields lower just 13bps," according to Birch Creek strategists. However, they said Friday's rally "in the front end helped pull shorter maturity munis ahead."

For the coming week, investors will be greeted with a new-issue calendar estimated at $8.213 billion.

Reinvestments, which includes maturities, called bonds and coupons, total over $114 billion over the next four months, according to ICE Data.

Outflows continue as Refinitiv Lipper reported investors pulled $1.345 billion from municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday.

Strength that began on Tuesday and continued Wednesday marked the first sessions since early May for positive performance after a hefty selloff, noted Kim Olsan, senior vice president at FHN Financial.

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Despite the firmer tone Tuesday, May performance has put munis on track for their worst May since 1986.