Primary bond market

Paul Chatalas, director of capital markets for the state, said the six series of bonds drew "aggressive bids."

While issuance has been on a record pace this year, this week sees a slight slowdown in activity, caused by participants going on vacation, said Jeff Timlin, a partner at Sage Advisory.

In a 2-1 vote, county commissioners approved an Oct. 8 competitive general obligation bond sale to keep funding a jail project amid escalating costs.

While issuance is up year-over-year, weeks like this can be difficult to find the right deals, said Whitney Fitts, director of municipal portfolio management at Appleton Partners.

Proceeds of the sale are expected to fund the purchase of the non-gambling businesses at Genting Group's Resorts World Catskills in Sullivan County.

"We expect subdued activity again [this] week heading into the Labor Day holiday," Birch Creek strategists said.

The relative rarity of the credit was compounded by their source of funds, the deal's size, and bond ratings slightly lower than New York state and city. 

Munis underperformed a UST rally, which had everything to do with Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium and future Fed action, said Cooper Howard, a fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab.

The University of Chicago went to market this week, as the Trump administration has targeted higher education and faculty criticize budget and program cuts.

A possible explanation is that the massive inflows into mutual funds are a parallel move to large inflows into the Capital Group Municipal High-Income ETF, which saw the biggest inflow of a ETF on Friday at $1.5 billion, said Pat Luby, head of municipal strategy at CreditSights.