Taxable bonds

Municipals took a breather Monday, largely ignoring stock market volatility and softer U.S. Treasuries, ahead of a solid $9 billion new-issue week.

September issuance was down more than 32% from the same month in 2020; total issuance so far this year is at $346.48 billion, down 2.4% compared to last year.

The high-grade muni scales saw cuts of up to four basis points in a continued selloff Monday as the market faces a robust slate of new issues.

Month-to-date returns for municipals are in the red with the Bloomberg Fixed Income Indices municipal index returning -0.12%, high-yield at -0.15% and taxables at -0.32%.

Municipals continue to stay in their own lane. ICI reported $1.4 billion of inflows in the 28th consecutive week.

Several strategists estimate the municipal market will be 50% taxable in five years if a direct-pay bond option makes its way into law.

Ridership on the RTA's three service boards remains sharply below pre-pandemic levels but it benefits from coronavirus relief and stellar sales tax performance.

Market participants welcomed the municipal-related provisions in the reconciliation bill but are hesitant to start making bets on its passage.

Cheered by the inclusion of key muni market priorities in tax legislation unveiled over the weekend, muni market advocates must now battle to keep them there.

Boston-based Breckinridge will partner with Harrington Cooper to specialize in investment grade fixed-income and ESG integration for investors in the UK, Ireland, Continental Europe and Japan.

The taxable deal from Georgia's largest not-for-profit health system offers investors three index-eligible bullet maturities in 10, 20 and 30 years.

The nearly 40% year-over-year decrease is a result of various factors including rising interest rates, other financing tools, such as forward delivery bonds, and simply that refundings are in less demand from issuers.

The taxable bonds will reduce the unfunded actuarial liability of, and employer contribution rates to, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.

Another replacement for exempt advance refundings, forward delivery bonds are attractive to issuers looking for savings and investors seeking incremental yield.

The increasing influence of institutional market participants is even stronger in the taxable muni sector, a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board report finds.

The firm has brought on Kalotay Analytics' quantitative libraries to calculate certain metrics, including average life dates and cash-flow yields for taxable term bonds.

Effective spread data yielded interesting results about the way corporate and municipal bonds were treated by Fed backstop programs.

That expansion wholly depends on Washington actually bringing back the taxable product and making it permanent, a diminishing scenario in 2021.

Muni participants await a new month with growing issuance, but perhaps not quite enough as issuers are hesitant to add more debt before final word from Washington on infrastructure.

The IRS is seeking comments on a change that may benefit many issuers.