Primary bond market

The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority sold $813 million of senior lien revenue bonds consisting of tax-exempt refunding, taxable refunding and forward delivery refunding bonds.

As New York City launched the first of its two-day retail order period on $1.039 billion of GO bonds, the market was uneventful ahead of $9.76 billion in the primary market this week

The taxable bonds will reduce the unfunded actuarial liability of, and employer contribution rates to, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.

Illinois hits the market over the next month with $500 million of new money and refunding bonds under its sales-tax backed Build Illinois bond program

The short end of the muni market saw trading of larger blocks at or below benchmarks but yield curves were little changed on a summer Friday.

The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank will offer $128 million of state revolving fund revenue bonds, and RIHousing will sell $172 million of homeownership opportunity bonds.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.87 billion inflows. A solid demand component for the market, but some suggest the move into bonds from equities is more an asset reallocation than investors keen on fixed income.

Another $2 billion-plus was reported flowing into municipal bond mutual funds in the latest week, continuing to be a supportive demand component for munis.

The increasing influence of institutional market participants is even stronger in the taxable muni sector, a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board report finds.

The $1.4 billion seaport revenue refunding bond deal Wells Fargo will price next week will be the largest port transaction since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Municipals are tethered to Treasuries, more so in recent sessions, and have cheapened, but strong technicals — $18.5 billion of net negative supply and large reinvestment needs — still hang overhead.

Triple-A benchmarks saw cuts of one to two basis points across the curve, but still outperformed two days of UST weakness and have outperformed UST losses since the start of the month.

Better-than-expected job gains, a rising UST complex and an increase in supply to test municipals' resolve.

Secondary trading petered off into Thursday afternoon, holding triple-A benchmarks steady as most participants await Friday's nonfarm payrolls.

The short end of the market has little room to fall lower.

With all eyes on Friday’s employment report, since several additional strong months of gains are needed for the Federal Reserve to be comfortable announcing a tapering of its asset purchases, Wednesday’s news could signal trouble.

Tighter bidding on bonds 10 years and in pushed high-grade benchmark curves to bump yields.

Municipals returned 0.83% in July with a year-to-date return of 1.90%. High-yield returned 1.20% in July and 7.40% year-to-date. Taxables led July with 1.65% returns and 1.95% for the year.

Michigan is bringing $855 million of state trunk line fund bonds to market Tuesday for road and bridge projects.

The city sees room for a new convention hotel, despite nearby competition and pandemic-related setbacks.