Bonds

Maine’s healthy reserves, achieved through proactive budget management, have positioned the Northern New England state to withstand revenue uncertainties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to analysts. Moody’s Investors Service analyst Pisei Chea said Maine’s strong reserve levels would enable it to weather any potential pitfalls that may arise this winter from revenue drops if

Municipals outperformed Treasuries as yields rose 10 basis points on the UST 10- and 30-year on talk of a potential stimulus deal and equities hit all-time highs. Secondary trading held municipal yields steady while Illinois’ highway deal priced and re-priced five to nine basis points lower and New York City Municipal Water Authority offered bonds

A federal court should strike down the Securities and Exchange Commission’s conditional exemption for muni advisors because the regulator did not solicit stakeholders’ input and was “arbitrary and capricious,” according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. SIFMA made its case in a newly-filed brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C.,

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is cautioning lawmakers that the U.S. economy remains in a damaged and uncertain state, despite progress made in the development of COVID-19 vaccines. “Recent news on the vaccine front is very positive for the medium term,” Powell said in testimony released Monday ahead of a Tuesday hearing before the Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set up a vote to advance the nomination of Christopher Waller to the Federal Reserve Board, potentially clearing the way for his confirmation later this week but leaving Judy Shelton’s path to the Fed uncertain. McConnell took the action on Waller’s nomination shortly after the Senate came into session Monday

The A Line train, which opened in 2016 as the first of three commuter rail links under the Eagle P3, connects Denver International Airport to downtown Denver’s Union Station.RTD A decade after its first issue of private activity bonds for a Denver-area commuter rail system, the Regional Transportation District is selling $340 million of refunding

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power heads to market Dec. 8 with $248 million in water system revenue bonds that carry a negative outlook from Fitch Ratings. The bond proceeds will be used to refund all or a portion of LADWP’s water system revenue bonds, series 2011A and series 2016A maturing on July

Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, was a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Municipal Bond Market Support Act of 2011 (S.1016). That bill would have increased to $30 million from the current $10 million, the limit on small borrowers to use bank-qualified bonds.Bloomberg News The public finance sector will find an attentive audience from a new chairman of

Tower Health’s aggressive expansion, financed by a 2017 bond issue, has hampered the Pennsylvania nonprofit health system’s finances, and may be forced to sell some of its acquisitions. Tower has incurred more than $550 million of operating losses during the past two fiscal years, after acquiring five community hospitals throughout the Philadelphia region in 2017

COVID-19 related curbs on economic activity in Massachusetts triggered a downgrade on Wednesday from S&P Global Ratings, which lowered its rating on the commonwealth’s Series 2004 special obligation dedicated tax revenue bonds and Series 2005 revenue refunding bonds two notches to BBB-plus from A. The outlook is negative. “The downgrade reflects a significant drop in

The pre-thanksgiving feast of economic data released on Wednesday showed momentum seen earlier in the quarter is waning, according to one analyst, while another saw “malaise,” as the number of coronavirus cases rises and governments add restrictions. “After the data today, it does appear as if the momentum from the start of the quarter is

Federal Reserve officials discussed providing more guidance on their bond-buying strategy during their Nov. 4-5 policy meeting. “Many participants judged that the Committee might want to enhance its guidance for asset purchases fairly soon,” according to meeting minutes published Wednesday by the Fed. In addition, “most participants judged that the guidance for asset purchases should

The municipal market firmed Wednesday as it got ready for the Thanksgiving holiday and looked ahead to next week’s supply slate. IHS Ipreo estimates volume for the week of Nov. 30 will be $7.68 billion, up from the under $1 billion seen this week. The calendar is composed of $6.99 billion of negotiated deals and

Illinois will borrow $2 billion through the Federal Reserve’s short-term lending program that expires at the end of the year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday. The state had been weighing how much to tap of the $5 billion in authority granted by state lawmakers in the spring when they signed off on the $43 billion

A divided Chicago City Council signed off on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2021 budget that closes a record $1.2 billion gap with scoop-and-toss debt restructuring, a property tax hike and mix of other structural and one-time maneuvers as the city seeks to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s fiscal wounds. The council voted 29-21 in favor of the

Municipal bond buyers swarmed in and snapped up the JFK Airport $332 million refunding deal, which came to market on Tuesday. Sources told The Bond Buyer the offering was massively oversubscribed, with one source saying they heard billions of dollars in orders came in for the bonds. JPMorgan Securities was able to reprice the deal

Now that it’s been given a new lease on life after the passage of Proposition 14, a statewide $5.5 billion ballot measure, California’s bond-funded stem cell research agency will re-write its budget. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine was created in 2004 when voters approve Proposition 71, allocating $3 billion in general obligation bond proceeds

The consumer confidence index decreased to 96.1 in November from an upwardly revised 101.4 last month, The Conference Board reported Tuesday. The October index was originally reported as 100.9. IFR Markets predicted a 98.0 reading for the index. The present situation index slipped to 105.9 from 106.2, while the expectations index fell to 89.5 from

Municipals held steady Monday while Treasuries weakened and equities rose as investors refocused on the effectiveness of vaccines against COVID-19. Yields on top-quality munis were unchanged on the AAA scale with Treasury bond yields rising as much as four basis points. Successes in finding effective vaccines against the coronavirus pushed investors into a risk-on mode

President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to serve as his Treasury secretary, a move that would put the first woman and a seasoned central banker into the nation’s top economic policy job as the coronavirus pandemic threatens another U.S. downturn, people familiar with the matter said. In Yellen, Biden

After the Nov. 4 to 5 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell noted the panel had discussed the asset purchases and would continue to monitor them going forward. That statement attracted market watchers’ attention and it will be their focus as they pore over the FOMC minute from that meeting,

A New Jersey dealer firm agreed to pay $25,000 to settle charges that it violated multiple municipal securities rules after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found it failed to correctly report 147,000 trades. Dealerweb agreed Thursday to pay those fines and be censured while neither admitting nor denying FINRA’s findings that it violated Municipal Securities

The election defeat of House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello — arguably Rhode Island’s most powerful politician — could trigger some hairpin turns in a state already spinning. Dynamics at the capitol in Providence include a steep resurgence of COVID-19 cases; a long-overdue fiscal 2021 budget for Gov. Gina Raimondo and a lame-duck General Assembly to enact;

Boosting diversity in the public finance sector should be a continued priority for the industry, building on some strides in 2020, municipal market leaders say. During Thursday’s Northeast Women in Public Finance webinar about bolstering racial equity in municipal finance, Neene Jenkins, executive vice president at J.P. Morgan Chase, said she has seen efforts throughout

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell said after the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting that the panel would be discussing extending the COVID-19-related emergency lending facilities beyond year-end. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a letter Thursday told Powell to end some programs, as scheduled, and return unused funds. The reviews on that move were

The long end of the municipal market firmed Friday as the expected new-issue calendar slipped to about $1 billion for the Thanksgiving-shortened trading week. Yields on top-rated bonds fell about a basis point on AAA scales as yields fell about eight to 13 basis points in total since Nov. 13. Treasury yields slipped as stocks

Issuers will lose a financial, if not psychological, backstop from the Federal Reserve at the end of the year and some participants fear the municipal market will become more fragile, less resilient and more prone to shocks amid another wave of coronavirus cases. Following Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s move on Thursday telling the Fed to

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board approved entering central government debt negotiations with a proposal that would include a 65.9% to 68.6% haircut for bondholders. The board voted 4-0 at Friday’s public meeting to adopt this position in negotiations with creditors. The Board considered the same resolution at a meeting on Oct. 30, and board member

The Federal Reserve said Friday it would comply with a Treasury Department request to return unused funds meant to backstop five emergency lending programs, moving to tamp down a public rift that arose a day earlier. “We will work out arrangements with you for returning the unused portions of the funds allocated to the CARES

California will have a $26 billion windfall to help balance next year’s budget, an unexpected cushion against the pandemic-led recession as revenue exceeds earlier dire predictions and costs fall below expectations. The latest revenue and spending report by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office is in stark contrast to the doom predicted early this year,