Primary bond market

Taxable munis have posted the highest returns among all fixed-income indexes this year, BofA said.

The county board signed off on about $600 million of borrowing and the financing teams that will bring the deals to market in January.

Munis were flat Monday as the entire curve was said to be undergoing a consolidation.

Paltry supply will force the secondary to handle the rest of 2020; New York City taxable general obligation bonds trade up by nearly 20 basis points on intermediate bonds.

The entire municipal exempt yield curve is seeing consolidation with a 125 basis point spread between one and 30 years, and sub-1% yields are holding firm inside of 15 years.

The state will repay borrowing by the Michigan Strategic Fund to cover its $600 million preliminary settlement over the Flint water contamination crisis.

The high-yield deal will mark the junk-rated city's third post-bankruptcy general obligation issue on its own credit, without any external support.

ICI reported another $2.3 billion of inflows, new deals continue the march to lower yields and benchmarks rose a basis point seven years and out for the first time since the beginning of December.

The state of Illinois sold $2 billion of three-year notes to the Federal Reserve's Municipal Liquidity Facility at 3.42%.

The municipal market can best be described as a "Goldilocks market" due to accommodative federal monetary policy, strong demand and limited supply, bond director Ben Watkins told the Cabinet.

Even with COVID-19-related shutdowns — a New York City lockdown may be imminent — issuers are pricing bonds into an extremely low-rate environment.

New York State's short-term revenue losses, resulting from coronavirus shutdowns, won't curb enthusiam for the Empire State Development Corp.'s offering, according to market sources.

The LBJ Infrastructure Group, operator of managed lanes on a Dallas highway, will sell $1.2 billion of bonds through a conduit issuer.

Munis firmed Friday, only the second time in December they weren't flat, and more than a few participants are waiting on yields to rise before getting involved, particularly given the rich muni/treasury ratios and low absolute yields.

Pinned into a corner from the economic effects of COVID-19, the mass transit agency tapped its remaining amount available through the Municipal Liquidity Facility, which expires at year's end.

Wisconsin will use new pools for negotiated transactions starting next year

Bid list volume is trending higher into the end of the year, but its share as measured against overall high demand does not pose much of a threat, analysts say. Refinitiv Lipper reports $992 million of inflows.

The largest tranche of the deal, $706 million with a 5% coupon in 2047, yielded 4.15%, a 275 basis point spread over triple-A paper.

COVID-19 brought the primary to a standstill in March and April. The municipal market is now set to eclipse $450 billion of issuance in 2020, a record.

The state will use debt service savings from the refunding side of the deal for near-term budget relief; the deal includes its first taxable refunding bonds.