Bonds

Municipal benchmark yield curves were little changed to a touch firmer Tuesday as all eyes were on the primary in which several larger competitive loans were sold and New York City Transitional Finance Authority offered nearly $1 billion to retail investor for the second day with some concessions. U.S. Treasury yields rose slightly and ratios

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board asked the Puerto Rico bankruptcy court Monday to continue to hear a suit against a local law that would scuttle the negotiated debt Plan of Adjustment. Lawyers for Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi filed a motion to stay the adversary proceeding, which is like a suit, on Aug. 25. The

Municipals were little changed to a touch weaker on Monday, underperforming a slightly better U.S. Treasury market while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallied. The New York City Transitional Finance Authority priced $950 million of future tax-secured bonds for day one of a two-day retail order period. Nearly all categories of municipals appear poised to

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi is expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit program for the island, which along with another expansion of a federal program, will likely aid the island’s economy, experts said. The federal government will provide $612 million a year for 10 years for the expanded credit, if the local government continues to

Unfunded retiree health-care benefits are the most material long-term liability for about one in 10 states and local governments, Moody’s Investors Service says. Retirement liabilities other than pensions — other-post employment liabilities, or OPEB — were roughly $1.1 trillion for the 50 states and more than 7,000 cities, counties and K-12 school districts that Moody’s

Alternative trading system platforms provide the value of visible liquidity and price discovery in the marketplace, especially for municipal securities that are not widely known and transacted when directly compared to broker’s broker platforms, according to a new MSRB report. The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board report compares trading activity on ATS platforms versus broker’s broker

Surging COVID-19 hospitalization rates driven by the highly contagious Delta variant threaten to set back the not-for-profit healthcare sector’s recovery and pose new uncertainties, new reports warn. Hospitalizations are trending upward in all states with the 14-day increase at double-digit percentages for all but a few. The most daunting strains that could negatively impact hospital

Municipals were little changed in light trading on the last Friday of August as U.S. Treasuries made gains as did equities following Federal reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech. The total potential volume for next week is estimated at $4.938 billion, an expected drop as the unofficial final week of summer comes ahead

Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard spoke with the Biden-Harris Federal Reserve transition team in January and with the president’s Council of Economic Advisers in May, her calendar shows. The meeting with the Fed transition team occurred Jan. 8 and included Gary Gensler, who is now Securities and Exchange Commission chairman. Brainard’s diaries were provided to

Leasing to private operators would leave the large majority of the 31 airports owned by city, county, and state governments with significant net proceeds after paying off outstanding airport bonds, allowing their governmental owners to pay down other debt or, in some cases, even eliminate unfunded pension liabilities. That was the conclusion of a study

Weakness moved out the yield curve Thursday as secondary bid-wanteds were still elevated while U.S. Treasuries pared earlier losses and equities sold off in the afternoon as news out of Afghanistan grew worse. For the 25th straight week, Refinitiv Lipper reported inflows into municipal bond funds. Investors put $1.9 billion of cash into the mutual

Municipals faced some pressure and benchmark yield curves were cut by one to two basis points Wednesday. Municipals largely have shrugged off a weaker U.S. Treasury market and outperformed while mutual funds saw another $2 billion-plus week of inflows. The 10- and 30-year UST have risen nine basis points since Monday, while munis have only

Members of the Puerto Rico Oversight Board met Puerto Rico’s government leaders on Tuesday to discuss the board’s proposed Plan of Adjustment, including dealing with unresolved pension payment disagreements between the parties. Some board members have sought a “grand bargain” with the local government to gain its support for the plan, which they hope would

Kroll Bond Rating Agency raised its outlook on Chicago’s general obligation bonds to stable from negative and affirmed the city’s GO rating at A. “The stable outlook assignment and the outlook revision on the outstanding GO bonds recognizes the tenor of actions taken by the city’s management in confronting COVID-19 induced challenges, an improved revenue

Kathy Hochul faces the glare of a highly diverse and fractious state as New York’s 57th governor, the first woman at the helm. Hochul, 62, a Buffalo native and former congresswoman, took the office at midnight. After nearly seven years as lieutenant governor, she succeeds Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid a sexual-harassment scandal and still

Municipals were unmoved in light trading to start the last week of August while U.S. Treasuries maintained Friday’s levels and equities advanced on news the FDA gave the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine full approval. Municipal benchmark yield curves continued to hold steady for the seventh day as investors await a diverse primary that includes gilt-edged Montgomery

Public facilities and environmental facilities were the municipal sectors that grew the most in volume in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020. The public facilities sector was up 126.9% and environmental facilities was up 77.7%. The transportation sector was third, growing 48.6%. The increases compare to an overall 9.9%

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said he’s open to adjusting his view that the Federal Reserve should start tapering its asset-purchase program sooner rather than later if the Delta variant persists and hurts economic progress. The Fed is currently buying $80 billion per month in Treasuries and $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities in an effort

Some members of the Puerto Rico Oversight Board want to reach a “grand bargain” with the local legislature to complete Puerto Rico’s debt deals. Both the Puerto Rico House of Representatives and Senate have voted overwhelmingly in favor of measures declaring they would not approve any bonds for a Plan of Adjustment that cut pensions

The tax-exempt market languished through a quiet summer Friday as municipals finished unchanged for the sixth straight trading session. IHS Ipreo estimates supply for the upcoming week at $7.04 billion. The week’s supply is composed of $5.36 billion of negotiated deals and $1.68 billion of competitive sales. Breaking it down, Refinitiv MMD calculated the tax-exempt

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual Jackson Hole gathering, which was due to be held in person Aug. 26-28, is now shifting to a virtual format, the bank announced Friday. The regional Fed bank said it was making the move “due to the recently elevated COVID-19 health risk level in Teton County, Wyoming.”

Nuveen said it plans to shut its high-yield municipal bond fund to new investors after the end of next month. The fund is the biggest focused on state and local government junk bonds, a corner of the market that’s received a massive influx of cash at a time when the pace of new debt sales

Municipals remained steady on an otherwise lackluster Thursday as the New York Liberty Development Corp. came to market with $1.22 billion of green bonds. Thursday saw the pricing of the last of the week’s large deals and a typical slow summer Friday lies ahead. A New York underwriter said the secondary continued to trade sideways

HilltopSecurities has hired two key financial services leaders from Piper Sandler for its public finance division in Florida and Minnesota. John Pellicci, former managing director at Piper Sandler, will serve as senior managing director, head of municipal high yield underwriting and sales at Hilltop. Yaffa Rattner, also formerly managing director at Piper Sandler, joined Hilltop

Investors digested three mammoth deals of $1 billion or more in the primary market on a heavy day of issuance as municipals remained unchanged, Treasuries were mostly steady, and more than $2.5 billion flowed into long-term municipal bonds. The primary market activity was brisk Tuesday as all eyes turned to the Federal Open Market Committee’s

Fitch Ratings has upgraded Sacramento, California’s issuer default rating to AA from AA-minus. The outlook is stable. Monday’s upgrade “reflects the city’s steady improvements in financial resilience based on incremental gains in reserves. Sacramento’s underlying economic growth coupled with a voter-approved sales tax, which has been permanently renewed, have fueled the increase in reserves,” Fitch

Municipals were steady and relative value increased on the long end of the market amid rising Treasuries Tuesday. The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority came to market with over $800 million of bonds as two New York issuers offered large deals to hungry retail investors ahead of Wednesday’s release of the Federal Open Market

The Federal Reserve told a judge not to scrap Libor as requested by consumers in a lawsuit because it would pose a risk to financial stability and undermine years of global planning for a transition to a new benchmark for borrowing rates. A staged transition away from the London interbank offered rate is underway globally,

Municipals were steady on Monday as New York City took orders of over $110 million on the first day of a two-day retail order period for $1.039 billion of general obligation bonds. Investors prepared for a week that will see nearly $10 billion of new volume come to market. Triple-A benchmark bonds from 2022 to

Two Rhode Island agencies will go to the market with negotiated infrastructure and housing deals next week. The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank on Tuesday plans a $128 million refunding of Series 2021A state revolving fund revenue bonds. Tuesday will also mark the retail order period for the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp.’s $172