Primary bond market

The prominent Chicago health system's refunding will simplify its debt structure, cut interest rates, and provide longer-term fixed financing.

Municipal triple-A benchmarks were pushed to lower yields by one to three basis points across the curve, with the bigger moves out long, but still vastly underperformed the 10-plus basis point moves in UST.

Supply, however, is still less than the massive amounts of cash on hand. Bond Buyer data shows 30-day visible supply at $12.53 billion.

Spreads for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which manages Chicago's convention center, narrowed in an $811 million deal that priced Thursday.

U.S. Treasuries have been volatile the past five sessions, with municipals largely ignoring the ride. Participants mostly have accepted current rates and ratios as large amounts of cash slosh around a market with strong technicals.

Honolulu plans to price $725.4 million of double-A-plus GOs next week; a significant chunk of the deal will support Oahu's troubled rail transit project.

Perform, a portfolio management platform for institutional investors who want to accesses the municipal bond market, will be integrated into ICE Bonds.

A key demand component in the market again flexed its muscles with ICI reporting another round of $2 billion-plus fund inflows.

Municipals outperformed U.S. Treasuries for a third sessions moving the 10-year municipal to UST ratio below 60%.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority are heading into the bond market, buoyed by state rating upgrades.

Most participants expect better performance for munis in the near-term. Longer-term, a lot depends on rates, COVID and other outside factors, such as infrastructure.

While municipals hit the pause button Friday, the movement in yields in the first week of July marked the largest one-week decline in 2021.

Fund inflows are a demand component unlikely to slow during the heavy reinvestment season, keeping the yield environment squarely in issuers' favor.

The Fitch Ratings upgrade applies only to GO debt — the city's issuer default rating remains AA-plus. The GOs benefit from California’s 2016 statutory lien law.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York overtook California for the most issuance, while New York issuers made up half of the top 10.

More of the same from the FOMC did little to move UST or munis. ICI reported the 17th consecutive week of inflows at $1.98 billion. July is looking good for municipal issuers.

As issuance increased, the top municipal bond underwriters saw their total par underwritten rise by 14.4% from the first half of 2020.

The calendar includes $4.25 billion of new money and $2.5 billion of refundings and reofferings, New York State's comptroller said.

U.S. Treasury 10- and 30-year yields hit February lows. Large blocks of high-grades in secondary trading led triple-A benchmarks to lower yields by two to four basis points across the curve.

With better-than-expected payrolls, economists still caution full recovery is a ways away. Muni participants are closely following how the Fed's action — or inaction — will affect the municipal market going forward.