Primary bond market

With the Fed committed to fighting inflation with aggressive rate hikes, fewer issuers want to take the risk with taxable advance refundings.

The Louisiana Bond Commission approved $600 million of notes to help pay Hurricane Ida damage claims after several insurers went bankrupt and up to $1.1 billion to build a biorefinery.

Investors sit on the sidelines, waiting to see how much the Fed will hike rates. The consensus appears to be another 75 basis point rate hike, though a full point hike could be on the table.

With the Fed rate decision coming this week, issuers are sitting on the sidelines in both primary and secondary Monday with little changed yield curves.

Cleveland drew a Moody's upgrade as it was prepping an annual GO sale.

Munis were firmer to end the week but underperformed U.S. Treasuries.

The bank in recent months shuttered its muni proprietary trading unit — which used the firm’s own cash to trade and invest — as part of a push to focus on providing more of its balance sheet to larger, institutional clients, according to people familiar with the matter.

Investors pulled $698.782 million out of municipal bond mutual funds, per Refinitiv Lipper data, versus the $206.127 million of inflows the week prior. High-yield saw small inflows.

The top two bond insurers — Assured Guaranty and Build America Mutual — accounted for $17.132 billion of deals in the first two quarters.

The Investment Company Institute reported investors added $543 million to muni bond mutual funds in the week ending July 13 compared to the $1.061 billion of outflows in the previous week.

Bond premiums decrease when a city facing flood risk adopts measures that will reduce those risks, according to a recent study.

Looking forward, a myriad of factors, including spiking fuel prices, fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the heat wave, “will facilitate recessionary(ish) economic outcomes by year end," noted an MMA report.

Estrada Hinojosa & Co., Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and CSG Advisors Incorporated moved into the top 10.

Most top 10 issuers for 1H are from New York and California, with four from New York and two from California.

Minor shuffling among the top municipal underwriters characterized the year-over-year differences, with Jefferies being the only newcomer to the top 10, replacing Robert W Baird & Co., which fell to 13th.

Munis are improving, but positive second-half municipal returns likely won’t be enough to offset the major losses of the first half of the year.

Massachusetts delayed the sale of $2.7 billion of taxable special obligation revenue bonds as state lawmakers consider a bill for their unemployment trust fund.

Investors will be greeted Monday with a new-issue calendar estimated at $7 billion. While issuance will likely come in above average this month, negative net issuance is still expected.

Investors added $206.127 million to municipal bond mutual funds, according to Refinitiv Lipper data.

Primary market takes focus for large revenue deals from the New York State Thruway Authority and the Colorado Health Facilities Authority.