Primary bond market

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its Beige Book report that U.S. economic growth slipped to a more moderate pace between early July and the end of August.

Altru's deal drew a downgrade from Fitch Ratings and a raised outlook from Moody's Investors Service.

The deal enhances the data, analytics and execution services the firms provide for municipal bonds and other fixed income securities, they said.

The taxable deal from Georgia's largest not-for-profit health system offers investors three index-eligible bullet maturities in 10, 20 and 30 years.

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).

Returns of negative 0.40% would be the third-worst August performance of the past 10 years, according to Bloomberg data.

Experts agreed that Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the Fed could start tapering this year and that it would have no implications for liftoff, but not everyone was satisfied with what they heard.

A pair of bond sales coming out of the Carolinas found homes with investors this week as demand for the paper was high.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.9 billion of inflows, high-yield gaining $524 million, the 25th consecutive week of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds.

The Investment Company Institute reported $2.3 billion of inflows, bringing 2021 totals to $67 billion.

While municipals were little changed, broader markets remain focused on Jackson Hole and speculating what will be said about tapering.