Sam Berzok News Today

The system is incorporating some floating-rate risk into its fixed-rate debt portfolio to allow for strategic flexibility after its new hospital campus opens.

The county began exploring a new facility eight years ago. Studies concluded the current facility was ill-equipped to deal with overcrowding, in poor physical condition and its design fell short of current standards.

"The market is expecting a 25 basis point rise in the Fed funds rate, but more importantly, investors are waiting for the comments for a better idea of what to expect going forward," said SWBC Investment Company's Roberto Roffo.

The "weakness in the secondary market will carry over into this week, which may lead to higher yields and wider spreads in the primary market," said CreditSights strategists Pat Luby and Sam Berzok.

Illinois' $2.45 billion GO sale should attract a wider investor audience with the higher ratings as the state seeks to raise new money for capital projects, fund ongoing pension buyout programs, and refund some debt for present value savings.

For the week ending Wednesday, outflows lessened as Refinitiv Lipper reported $91.713 million was pulled from municipal bond mutual funds after $194.097 million of outflows the week prior.

For four consecutive weeks, triple-A yields have fallen, and munis returned over 2.2% for the month, "a great reversal from February where munis returned a loss of 2.26%," said AmeriVet Securities' Jason Wong.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will testify beore Congress twice this week and Friday brings the latest employment report.

The availability of higher yields has brought some investors into the market — even though volume in the primary and secondary markets are on the thin side and the municipal market is a bit of a mixed bag right now.

February municipal bond activity compared to last month is brisk yet more finicky in the face of an ongoing supply shortage, according to Jeff Lipton, head of municipal credit and market strategy and municipal capital markets at Oppenheimer & Co.