Municipal Bond News

• Rates have fallen so quickly and steeply in our market that states and cities can now borrow near February’s all-time lows.

• The FED indicated yesterday that the central banks' $500B lending program to states and cities is “working,” and we are seeing signs it is an overall positive for our markets. The mere prospect of such an unprecedented intervention helped halt a liquidity crunch in March that sent pricing tumbling as we all painfully remember.

• House Dem's prepared a bill that will add a 4th stimulus package focused on the MUNI and State markets.  They proposed a $3T deal for just that purpose.

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• Powell urged lawmakers to deliver more fiscal stimulus to shield the US economy from the virus as he warned yesterday of a weak recovery as the pandemic passes.  Economic activity will likely drop to an unprecedented rate in the second Q, and the economy will need support from all of us, referring to the Treasury and the Government.
• As we know, rates did not change on 4/29

• Comments from Mitch McConnell indicating that he supports bankruptcy for states, shook the market yesterday, and will most likely push markets lower for State GO's.  This comment was geared around not wanting to bail states out for "past" mistakes (like pension funding issues). I believe that McConnell overstepped his boundaries by making this statement.

• The FED’s loans to municipalities will only be available for cities with more than 1MM residents and counties with more than 2MM. These municipalities will be able to take out loans from the Central Bank to cover short term deficits.  Cities that surprisingly will not qualify are Baltimore, Atlanta, and Detroit, to name a few.

• Democrats push for the FED to buy low rated MUNI debt to ease the strain on the MUNI markets.  The past Treasury bill allowed them to buy MUNI bonds by putting a "bid" into the marketplace to add stability to our market.