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

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

Retired West Hollywood, California, City Manager Paul Arevalo has joined Raymond James as managing director in its Pasadena office, further strengthening the firm’s public finance coverage in the state. The broker-dealer entered California in 2011 and has grown to 14 public finance people working in offices in Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Clemente and San Francisco.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli cited the strength of the state’s pension system in lowering the long-term assumed rate of return on investments by the $268 billion Common Retirement Fund. The rate will drop to 5.9% from 6.8%, DiNapoli said in approving a recommendation from retirement systems actuary Michael Dutcher. The third-largest pension fund

Sam Turvey and his ReThinkNYC civic organization have been battling powerful and entrenched transit and real-estate interests in their push to include through-running commuter trains as part of New York’s Penn Station modernization. More broadly, they and others are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to re-examine the Empire Station Complex plan. a real estate-and-transit trophy

The Santee Cooper Board of Directors gave official approval Thursday to this week’s sale of about $430 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds as North Carolina finalized the sale of its $253 million grant anticipation revenue vehicle bond deal. The the South Carolina Public Service Authority transaction included about $146 million of Series 2021A refunding bonds

The Puerto Rico Senate approved a hike in the island’s minimum wage Thursday. The legislation would lift the minimum to $8.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2022, and $9.50 on July 2023. A third increase, to $10.50 per hour, was agreed for July 1, 2024, but subject to the evaluation of a newly created Minimum

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

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

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

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board is trying to exercise control over the local government’s use of tax incentives, arguing Puerto Rico may be losing more than $260 million of annual potential revenue because of them. For several years the board has complained the local government has granted too many tax incentives to corporations and individuals.

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

Women in Public Finance marks its 25th anniversary with a return to its Chicago roots for a hybrid in-person and remote conference in September. WPF will recognize the recipients of its annual Founders Awards. Michigan Treasurer Rachael Eubanks will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award; Suzanne Beitel, a senior vice president and chief financial officer at

As California lawmakers head into the fall to wrangle over budget trailer bills and begin to contemplate next year’s budget, they will do so with a robust piggy bank. California revenues continued to beat expectations, coming in $1.5 billion above the 2021-22 Budget Act forecast of $8.4 billion for July, according to the California Department

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

Municipal issuers in the Southeast sold $37.13 billion of bonds in the first half of 2021, up 30% from the $28.56 billion sold in the same period in 2020. New money bonds accounted for $25.84 billion, a 70.9% increase, with refunding amounting to $9.56 billion, nearly flat at a 1.1% increase. Deals classed as combined

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

The South Carolina Public Service Authority is set to sell $427 million of tax-exempt revenue obligations on Wednesday. The Santee Cooper deal consists of $138 million of Series 2021A refunding bonds and $289 million of Series 2021B improvement bonds. The bonds are secured by electric revenues and rated A2 by Moody’s Investors Service, A by

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit District to AA from AA-plus. The rating agency also maintained its negative outlook at the lower rating. Fitch’s action Thursday affects BART’s issuer default rating and $686 million in taxable sales tax revenue bonds. The agency had just shy of $2 billion of long-term

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

Puerto Rico employment numbers were mixed in July. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey showed July employment was down 0.06% from the June total. The bureau also releases an employment survey of non-farm establishments and this showed an increase of 0.4% from June. The survey does not include self-employment. July’s household survey total

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

Filmmakers working in North Carolina are on track to have a $409 million economic impact on the state’s finances this year, Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday. These investments are on track to be the biggest since the creation of the state’s Film and Entertainment Grant program in 2014, Cooper said, during a press conference at

Leaders of California’s high-speed rail project have not given up on garnering additional federal funds to pay for the slow-moving project that is supposed to link the state’s major cities. High-speed rail, championed by President Joe Biden on the campaign trail, was shunted to the sideline in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. House Speaker Nancy

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