Municipal New Issuance: For the first week of March, the negotiated calendar had a total volume of just over $10 billion with the largest deal of the week being the $1.4 billion City of New York GO issuance which AmeriVet participated in the Selling-Group. The Regents of the University of California issued just over $1.2 billion and the Commonwealth of Kentucky issued $900 million this past week.

Municipal Secondary Trading: Secondary trading for the week totaled to just over $40 billion with 52% of all secondary trading being dealer sells and the bulk of secondary trading volume being on Thursday. According to Bloomberg, clients put approximately $6 billion up for the bid, an increase from the prior week’s bids-wanted volume of $4.97 billion.

Municipal Spreads: For the first week of March, muni yields rose by an average of 7.5 basis points across the curve with yields rising the most in the long end. Yields on 10-year notes rose by 7.5 basis points to end the week at 2.95%. With yields rising this past week, munis did underperform versus Treasuries as the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio is now yielding 68.64% compared to 68.37% a week ago. With yields rising the most in the long end, we did see the muni curve steepen by 9.4 basis points to finish the week at 145 basis points. Just one month ago, the curve was at 126 basis points.

According to the LSEG Lipper US Fund Flows data, muni bond funds added roughly $872 million over the past week which marks the seventh consecutive week of inflows and follows the prior week’s inflow of $796 million. Mutual funds did see inflows of $601 million in long term funds as well as inflows in high yield funds to the tune of $682 million.

Munis sold off this past week to start the month of March in the red as market uncertainty continues to move the markets. Munis saw cuts across the curve this past week with yields in front end seeing cuts of about 2.5 basis points, the belly of the curve seeing cuts of 7 basis points, and the long end seeing the largest cuts at 10 basis points. With the sell off last week, year-to-date returns fell back below 1% for the first time since the second week of February. With munis weaker this past week, we continue to see munis cheapen compared to Treasuries as ratios have cheapened in the past week by .41-.76 percentage points across the curve with the 2-year ratio cheapening the most over the past week.

Municipal Supply: This week, the negotiated calendar will have an expected volume of $7.68 billion with the largest deal of the week being the $1.5 billion New York City Transitional Finance Authority Future Tax Secured Tax-Exempt Subordinate Bonds issuance which AmeriVet will be participating in the Selling-Group. The Board of Regents of the University of Texas System will issue $650 million in Permanent University Fund bonds and the State of Ohio will be issuing $500 million in Common Schools GO bonds and Infrastructure Improvement GO bonds. AmeriVet will also be serving as a Co-Manager for the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency’s Single-Family Housing Revenue bonds issuance which will consist of $75 million in tax-exempt bonds and $65 million in taxable bonds.