Municipal bond issuers are selling debt at a faster pace than they were at this time last year, even though COVID-19 is still hampering state and local governments. At the halfway point of 2020, the top muni issuers have accounted for $`188.58 billion in 5,105 transactions, compared to the $165.18 billion over 4,654 deals in the same time period of 2019.
Four of the top 10 issuers did not sell any bonds in the second quarter, including two of the top four.
While Friday's muni session was muted, the damage of a volatile UST market, paired with low new-issue supply and year-end positioning, has weighed on the asset class in December.
A decline in debt service coverage drove S&P's four-notch downgrade for Salinas, California, sewer revenue debt, which it placed on CreditWatch negative.
The new Congress will have a full plate including deciding the fate of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and Internal Revenue Service funding in a legislature that's already showing cracks of disagreement.
Kotek has spent the past month working on a very busy agenda involving housing, fires, transportation and construction labor agreements.
High-yield funds saw outflows of $413.6 million compared to the previous week's outflows of $71 million.
Six Texas cities sued the state comptroller over a rule that altered where sales taxes would be collected on certain online purchases.
