Secondary bond market

Moody's cut NYC's $39 billion of outstanding GOs to Aa2 citing the effects of COVID-19 and also lowered the debt rating of New York State.

Kim Olsan, senior vice president at FHN Financial talks with The Bond Buyer's Lynne Funk about trading the municipal market in the COVID era. Olsan trades the short- and intermediate but she has some thoughts about high-yield and taxables as well. (36 minutes)

The Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority’s deal came in three times oversubscribed and was an important step in the Commonwealth’s return to the capital markets.

Atlanta airport bonds and a Puerto Rico housing issuer were some new offerings of note on Tuesday.

One muni bond sector that had been a go-to for heavier allocations was utilities, according to Kim Olsan.

The Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority will be in the market with almost $250 million of public housing project refunding bonds.

Without more fiscal support, the outlook becomes murkier with the possibility of economic data disappointment and volatility in rates, and historically muni demand dampeners, Morgan Stanley said.

Pledging the payroll mobility tax would get the authority a lower Municipal Liquidity Facility interest rate, board member Lawrence Schwartz said.

Accurate obligor identification can allow any matrix-based bond evaluation system to improve pricing accuracy and reduce manual intervention by pricing analysts, the firm said.

ICI reports another $2 billion inflow week while new issues fare well. High-grades around the 2026 maturity were trading in large blocks showing stability.

Diverse issuers from NYC to Texas to Chicago to Michigan to PA Turnpikes priced billions into the primary while the secondary again took a back seat.

Rates remain stagnant even as UST rallied Monday. Large deals from NYC and Texas issuers are on deck for Tuesday.

On Friday, municipals finished little changed, with yields remaining steady along most of the AAA GO scales.

The new-issue market saw deals from Houston, the Illinois Finance Authority and the City and County of San Francisco, Calif., hit the screens.

Duane McAllister and Lyle Fitterer of Baird talk with Chip Barnett about low rates and credit quality. They discuss the best scenarios for investors and issuers in these challenging times. (20 minutes)

Secondary trading picked up somewhat while the new-issue market saw a large amount of taxables in the negotiated space while Pennsylvania competitively sold $470 million of general obligation bonds.

This deal is designed to expand MarketAxess’ existing municipal bond trading solution for global institutional investor and dealer clients, the firm said.

The Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority may issue $250 million of tax-exempt capital fund modernization program refunding bonds the week of Sept. 28.

"Yields are just still so remarkably low," a New York City trader said.

Municipals held firm ahead of a strong supply stream of bonds in a calendar heavy with taxable and green bond deals.