Bonds

Municipals were little changed on light trading in the secondary again Wednesday as Illinois and Texas priced bonds in the primary and the Investment Company Institute reported another round of billion-dollar-plus inflows. The Investment Company Institute reported $1.325 billion of inflows for the week ending Sept. 8, following $1.804 billion of inflows the prior week,

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tapped San Antonio, Texas, school superintendent Pedro Martinez — a former Chicago Public Schools fiscal chief — to lead the district as fiscal and governance change looms. Lightfoot introduced Martinez as the new chief executive officer at a news conference Wednesday. Martinez is the first Latino to hold the CEO position

Stifel Financial Corp. has added a pair of financial veterans to lead its fixed-income capital markets division with the hiring of David Rubulotta and promotion of Brant McDuffie. The team will share the role of deputy co-heads of the department, which is a first for the financial services holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Mo.,

The government of Guam has settled on a $937 million budget for fiscal 2022, which starts Oct. 1. Gov. Lourdes “Lou” Guerrero on Saturday said she would let the budget go into effect without her signature. The legislature transmitted the budget to her on Aug. 31. The budget includes $623.6 million of total General Fund

The municipal primary was the focus Tuesday with large deals repricing to lower yields while the secondary market took a backseat with benchmark curves little changed even as U.S. Treasuries rallied and stocks sold off. Triple-A benchmarks saw a basis point bump in spots while U.S. Treasury yields fell five basis points on the 10-

A sweeping clean energy package headed to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk gives the bond-financed and coal-fired Prairie State Energy Campus and Springfield’s Dallman 4 plant more time than past proposals to meet carbon reduction targets before forced shutdowns. The legislation calls for municipally owned coal plants to cut all carbon emissions or face closure

On the heels of Minnesota’s recent $876 million deal, the state’s public university system heads into the market this week with a deal that offers investors a range of paper to pick from, including a sustainability-certified bond. The Regents of the University of Minnesota will bring a $127 million refunding on Tuesday and follow with

Municipals were little changed ahead of a $10 billion-plus new-issue week as California offered $2 billion of general obligation bonds to retail investors and the market considered the municipal bond provisions offered from Washington. Triple-A benchmarks reported steady levels while U.S. Treasuries improved and equities also improved. “The municipal market is relatively unchanged and not

Texas Republican leaders have taken their battle with the federal government to a level not seen since desegregation. On virtually every front — healthcare, voting rights, women’s rights, gay and trans-gendered rights, crime, immigration, education — elected state leaders have assumed an adversarial position as reflected in laws, lawsuits and public declarations. Leading the opposition

A deterioration in U.S. governance, dimming the outlook on the country’s sovereign rating, is a concern for state and local credits. Fitch Ratings analysts discussed this and other issues during a Thursday webinar focusing on state and local budgeting and how those entities are spending federal coronavirus aid funds. While there is no direct link

Two Chicago area not-for-profit health providers — NorthShore University HealthSystem and Edward-Elmhurst Health — will join forces to form a nine-hospital system. Warrenville-based Edward-Elmhurst operates three hospitals west of Chicago — Edward Hospital in Naperville, Elmhurst Hospital in Elmhurst and a behavioral facility located on Edward’s campus. Edward and Elmhurst hospitals merged in 2013 to

California will come to market Tuesday with $2.1 billion in general obligation bonds, coincidentally on Election Day for the ballot question asking if the state’s voters want to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom from office. CreditSights, an independent investor research firm, affirmed a market perform rating on California’s GOs ahead of the deal, but raised concerns

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the release of $2.75 billion to support the state’s Homekey project Thursday. The program provides money to local governments to build permanent supportive housing for unhoused people. It’s estimated the additional funding could build up to 14,000 housing units for people exiting homelessness, said Newsom, who called it the largest

Almost two dozen amicus briefs have been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the past 10 days in favor of granting Supplemental Security Income benefits to Puerto Ricans and other territorial residents, with oral arguments set for Nov. 8. Providing the payments would mean an additional $1 billion in federal transfers to Puerto Ricans

VanEck launched a municipal exchange-traded fund with a sustainability designation, the first ETF of its kind in the municipal space. The VanEck HIP Sustainable Municipal fund, SMI ticker, introduced Friday, is an actively managed fund focusing on investment-grade state and local government debt that funds projects promoting sustainable development, including affordable housing, green spaces and

Municipal bonds were little changed, ignoring another reversal in U.S. Treasuries on Friday ahead of a larger-than-average $10 billion-plus calendar led by California, Texas and New York issuers. Triple-A benchmarks were unmoved again Friday while the 10-year UST rose four basis points and the 30-year four. As such, ratios fell slightly with the 10-year muni-to-Treasury

First of two parts Visceral memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City — and more positively, the response from the capital markets — linger 20 years later. The anniversary comes as the city is trying to emerge from a newer crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, generational

Municipals were little changed, underperforming a U.S. Treasury rate reversal from Wednesday as all eyes were on the primary with Minnesota selling $897 million of general obligation bonds to strong reception. Triple-A benchmarks were unmoved while the 10-year UST fell four basis points and the 30-year five. As such, ratios rose slightly with the 10-year

The presidents of the Federal Reserve banks of Boston and Dallas said Thursday they would sell their individual stock holdings by Sept. 30 and invest the proceeds in diversified index funds or hold them in cash. The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve buildingBloomberg News Eric Rosengren, head of the Boston Fed, and Robert Kaplan, president

Moody’s Investors Service upgrade of Maine energy housing and economic recovery bonds to Aa3 was well-deserved, according to its state treasurer. Moody’s on Tuesday boosted the so-called MEHER bonds, which the Maine State Housing Authority issues, to its fourth-highest rating, one notch, for its Series 2021 1 and 2 bonds, while maintaining a stable outlook.

Title: Director Public Finance — Credit StrategyFirm: Wells FargoAge: 39 Kristen Fontana always had an affinity for the policy side of public finance. After dipping her toes into public finance with an internship at an investment bank during the financial crisis, she decided to go back to school for a graduate degree. There, Kristen said,

The Puerto Rico Planning Board is more optimistic for economic growth for the next 10 years than the Oversight Board is in its adopted fiscal plan. This Planning Board, the local government body that analyzes economic data and makes economic and demographic projections, expects an average 1.04% real Gross National Product growth from fiscal 2022

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Wednesday the department will probably exhaust its ability to avoid breaching the federal debt limit sometime in October and renewed her call on Congress to boost or suspend the ceiling. “Based on our best and most recent information, the most likely outcome is that cash and extraordinary measures will be

Melissa Norcia was appointed the chief administrative officer for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System on Tuesday. Norcia starts September 15 and replaces Lisa Blatnick, who became CalSTRS chief operating officer in August. CalSTRS was established by law in 1913 to provide retirement benefits to California’s public school educators from prekindergarten through community college. Today,

Municipals were little changed to a touch weaker out longer Tuesday, outperforming U.S. Treasuries, which saw yields rise as much as five basis points, while equities were mixed on the day. Ratios fell slightly out longer with the municipal to UST 10-year ratio at 70% and the 30-year at 77%, per Refinitiv MMD. The 10-year

As California coastal cities look for methods to avert the harsh realities of the state’s second drought in a decade, desalination has returned as a hot topic. In San Diego County, the drought makes the argument that the controversial choice to build a coastside desalination plant was correct. The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant

The catastrophic remnants of Hurricane Ida snuck up on Northeast states Wednesday, catching officials and the general population off-guard. But such a storm, still delivering massive amounts of rain more than 1,300 miles from its Louisiana landfall, is no outlier, one New Jersey climate official warned. “It may be a different animal, as you put

In a prolonged low-interest-rate environment, many issuers may have paid little heed to arbitrage on bond proceeds. But that could change, and municipal advisors and bond counsel are staying vigilant on their clients’ behalf. “Declining interest rates make it generally easier to manage arbitrage,” said Adam Harden, partner at Locke Lord in Texas. “Post-issuance compliance

California received an outlook boost to positive from S&P Global Ratings as the state prepares to sell more than $2 billion of general obligation bonds. The deal will land the week of a Sept. 14 recall election targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom. But California’s surplus and budgetary changes that occurred after the 2008 economic crash will

Jennifer Fredericks joined Ice Miller LLP last month to take on the newly created role of director of business development for public finance. Fredericks left Bank of New York Mellon, where she was a vice president of business development for the corporate trust group, to take the Ice Miller position. At BNY Mellon she led