Southeast

April continues to be "harsh" for munis as the asset class has given up roughly 72 basis points in the first two weeks of the month, said Jason Wong, vice president of municipals at AmeriVet Securities.

"We were originally thinking that we would offer five-, seven- and 10-year maturities, with $500 million in each tranche. But we decided today to just offer 5s and 10s — $500 million of five-year bonds and $1 billion of 10-year bonds," said Ben Watkins, Director of Florida's Bond Division.

The city will leverage its own GO bonds to finance the stadium.

The pace of the issuance and the increase of refundings, surging 59.6% in the first quarter of 2024, have also led some firms to up their overall 2024 issuance projections.

Despite an S&P rating upgrade ahead of this week's GO bond deal, Louisiana paid a wider spread to a 10-year benchmark than it did a year ago. Longer maturities saw tighter spreads on from a year ago.

"The news is sparking an equity market selloff while sending bond yields to the stars as investors dial down their Fed easing expectations again, this time to only two rate cuts this year," said José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.

Capital outlay investments in the governor's "common ground budget" provide over $1.4 billion in general fund cash and tax-supported debt for projects, including $100 million of bonds for improvements to wastewater treatment plants.

The deal comes amid market inflows and a dearth of high-yield supply, but demand will depend, as always, on the price, investors said.

Since war broke out on Oct. 7 between Israel and Hamas, over $1.64 billion of Israel bonds have been sold to more than 35 U.S. states, counties, cities and municipalities.

Muni to UST ratios also continue to rise across the curve, inching closer to more normal averages.