Primary bond market

Despite this week’s smaller calendar, the recent surge of bond deals could make June the most active month of 2020.

Municipal bonds finished a very active week little changed as participants caught their breath after seeing almost $12 billion of new issues come to market.

Besides navigating coronavirus market disruption, investors also find themselves dealing with the increasingly important and often inconsistent climate risk disclosure.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.7 billion of municipal bond fund inflows. while municipal prices were little changed Thursday.

Matt Boardman, head of fixed income for RBC Wealth Management, talks with Chip Barnett, about how the municipal bond market has changed over the past few months in light of the coronavirus pandemic. He talks about how the economic effects due to COVID-19 caused a "sudden and violent" dislocation in munis for over two months and how we’ve now returned to being a more rational and reasonable market and remains vibrant and strong.

The day's big new-issue slate was led by the pricing of the New York State Urban Development Corp.'s $1.3 billion deal.

Its $400 million GOs attracted investors, resulting in a record low interest cost of 2.31%, according to state Treasurer Shawn Wooden.

Municipals finished weaker on Tuesday amid Treasury weakness and equity strength.

The $779 million refunding will capture present value savings while pushing off some debt repayments for budget relief that Fitch called "reasonable."

With almost half of June being done and dusted, yield movement is nearly unchanged from May’s closing levels, sources said.

The Wisconsin health system's ratings have weathered the early impact of COVID-19 on its balance sheet, although S&P revised its outlook to negative.

S&P moved its outlook on St. Louis' rating to negative due to the budgetary pressures posed by the pandemic

New York, Texas and Pennsylvania issues headline the new-issue slate.

Proceeds from the sale would go to providing direct grants to non-profit organizations.

Yields on the long end of the curve dropped as much as seven basis points while very short yields rose.

Asset managers maintain key strategies, but take advantage of post-pandemic opportunities amid overall stabilization.

Oregon's $320.4 million of taxable GO bonds were 7.7 times oversubscribed in some maturities.

Lynn Martin, president & COO of ICE Data Services, also owner of the New York Stock Exchange, talks about ICE's role in pricing, its municipal evaluation services and just how the municipal market itself is resilient. Chip Barnett, senior markets reporter hosts with another Lynn(e), innovation editor at The Bond Buyer.

The market looks forward to Thursday's $3.3 billion note deal from DASNY after handling a sizable calendar Wednesday.

Traders will be looking closely at Wednesday's FOMC meeting and whether the Fed will set target yields for some U.S. Treasury securities.