Primary bond market

Assured's controlling vote is "important to investors who were reassured to hear that there would be a large sophisticated party with a significant economic interest in the success of the project," the insurer said.

The "historical runway" heading into Memorial Day is favorable, rolling into the summer redemption months of June through August, said James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.

Healthcare issuance is up 122.2% year-over-year through April, rising to $9.062 billion through the first four months of 2024 from $4.078 billion over the same time period in 2023, LSEG data shows.

Issuance has increased, but financial performance and ratings are likely to stay volatile.

Munis posted losses in April, returning negative 1.24%. The asset class is also seeing losses of 1.62% year-to-date.

The deal, originally planned at $1.5 billion in three maturities, was downsized and restructured and then restructured again into one 10-year bullet maturity.

While munis were steady Tuesday, yields have risen over the past several weeks as "larger supply is part of a strong [year-to-date] trend for tax-exempts," said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics.

Preliminary issuance figures for April are at $39.39 billion, up 18% from April 2023.

"Bond market investors are all wishing that April was behind us as they are anxious to hear the Fed's statement at its next FOMC meeting," noted BofA Global Research. "The statement should be no surprise as the market consensus has converged to 'higher for longer' rates.

Inflows returned to muni mutual funds as investors added $200.3 million for the week ending Wednesday after $1.474 billion of outflows, according to LSEG Lipper.