Investors added $238.5 million to municipal bond mutual funds in the week ending Wednesday, following?$1.124 billion of inflows the prior week, according to LSEG Lipper data.
As Congress begins hammering out the budget resolutions that will shape the country's fiscal future, muni lobbyists double down on efforts to keep the tax-exemption in place.
The rising costs of federal debt, an impending budget showdown, and Congressional turmoil is highlighting the complex relationship between Treasury securities and municipal bonds.
The tax exemption has been in place for more than 110 years, but Republicans say its removal is vital for prolonging many parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Charter schools drove the worst January ever for impairments since Municipal Market Analytics began tracking default trends, the firm said in a Feb. 5 report.
The executive director of the Puerto Rico Oversight Board suggested non-settling bondholders might be offered recoveries of about 4% of the principal due.
Hilltop and other firms say more recent SEC off-channel communications settlements eliminated "costly and burdensome" requirements that were imposed on them.
"Our job is to take that volatility, figure out what's noise, figure out what's reality, and lean into the opportunities as we see them," said Alex Petrone, director of fixed income at Rockefeller Asset Management.
Huntington has hired Dan Kelly as head of municipal underwriting. The industry veteran will bolster the bank's strategy of pursuing larger transactions.
Yields have fallen over the past few weeks, so "any decent excuse that rates move up a little bit after that big rally" may have occurred as the market digested the report ? which was a "little bit of a mixed bag" ? after the initial headline figure, said Jeff MacDonald, EVP and head of fixed income at Fiduciary Trust International.
A state board moved toward instituting salary-based employee premium health insurance payment system as a way to avoid a looming $1.3 billion deficit in the government's health plan budget.
Both houses of the Virginia state government have advanced budget bills that include rebates to taxpayers from surpluses fattened by federal funding and robust tax collections, a trend that concerns policy experts.
Investors added $1.124 billion to municipal bond mutual funds in the week ending Wednesday, following?$741.6 million of inflows the prior week, according to LSEG Lipper data.
Walrath will support BAM's underwriting and credit departments in executing every credit BAM insures and advise the bond insurer on other legal matters.
The short-lived federal funding freeze from President Donald Trump and jeopardy of tax-exempt status are just the latest issues plaguing the muni bond industry.
Muni yields were bumped one to eight basis points, depending on the scale, while UST yields fell three to 10 basis points, with the greatest gains out long.
A recent Texas Supreme Court decision will force the city to increase the amount of property tax revenue allocated to a dedicated drainage and street fund.
Connecticut's governor proposed a new public finance tool as part of a broad plan to improve the state's resiliency against extreme weather and climate change.
As Chicago Public Schools tries to get its fiscal house in order, it faces management turmoil, risks to federal funding and threatened immigration raids.
Tax exemption concerns ? though an elimination is unlikely ? and the loss of federal stimulus will "most assuredly pull forward delayed issuance, with the first half of 2025 volume to exceed second half volume," said James Welch, a municipal portfolio manager at Principal Asset Management.
S&P Global Ratings revised the outlook on Southern California Edison and its parent company citing the potential depletion of the state's bond wildfire fund.
To close out the day, USTs remained mixed, with yields rising on the short end and falling out long, while munis were changed up to a basis point, depending on the curve.
The San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency tapped reserves to make early bond payments saving $203 million. It's parent agency, the Transportation Corridor Agencies, hopes to save $1.79 billion with additional early pay downs by 2030.
Issuers, trade organizations, and investors team up to fight the threat to the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds by laying out its effect on borrowing, the housing market, and infrastructure costs.
January's municipal bond supply "will end up being heavier compared with the normally slow start of the year, but the pipeline should remain quite robust," Barclays (JJCTF) said.
In general the bond market is volatile, and fixed income securities carry interest rate risk. (As interest rates rise, bond prices usually fall, and vice versa. This effect is usually more pronounced for longer-term securities.) Fixed income securities also carry inflation risk and credit and default risks for both issuers and counterparties. Unlike individual bonds, most bond funds do not have a maturity date, so avoiding losses caused by price volatility by holding them until maturity is not possible.
Lower-quality debt securities generally offer higher yields, but also involve greater risk of default or price changes due to potential changes in the credit quality of the issuer. Any fixed income security sold or redeemed prior to maturity may be subject to loss.
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