Bonds

The government has sent $110 billion of infrastructure funds to states and local governments in the six months since President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “Just in the last six months, this group behind us on behalf of the President of the United States has pushed out $110 billion of funding,”

FHN Financial Capital Markets will establish its first Midwest banking presence in Chicago, led by Melanie Shaker, and put banking boots on the ground in Scottsdale, Arizona, with the hiring of Rene Moreno. Shaker will join the firm’s existing Chicago office that houses sales professionals on May 24, and Moreno started Monday in what marks

New York City got some good news just as it prepares to come to market with more than $1 billion of general obligation bonds next week. Fitch Ratings revised the outlook on the city’s AA-minus rated GOs to positive from stable citing improved revenue performance as the city sees a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester backed raising interest rates by half percentage points at the central bank’s next two policy meetings in order to tamp down surging inflation.  “Unless there are some big surprises, I expect it to be appropriate to raise the policy rate another 50 basis points at each of

As gas prices hit a fresh record high Friday, some analysts wonder when they will begin to impact the credit quality of transportation assets, like toll roads and airlines. Not now, S&P Global Ratings said in a report, but that could change if high prices stick around. “From a historical perspective, volatile fuel prices have

California Gov. Gavin Newsom rolled out an $18 billion inflation-relief package during his May budget revision that included $400 rebates to car owners as well as expanded rental assistance and help covering past-due utility bills. The state budget boasts a $97.5 billion surplus, according to the governor’s estimates, but lawmakers also face spending restrictions from

A reversal of U.S. Treasuries added more selling pressure on municipals Friday with another day of cheaper trading in the secondary leading to cuts in triple-A scales after a week of underperformance to taxables that pushed ratios firmly above 100% out long. Municipal triple-A benchmark yields rose up to five basis points in another rough

Illinois’ rosier near-term fiscal landscape and state bond rating momentum helped lift the ratings of public transit agencies and the state’s public universities and more than $5 billion of rated debt.   Earlier this month, Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority’s $1.7 billion of general obligation bonds to Aa3 from A1 due

Municipals were mixed Thursday as the last of largest new-issues priced in the primary led by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, while U.S. Treasuries caught a risk-on trade and equities rebounded near the close after larger losses earlier in the session in another volatile day. Triple-A benchmark yields rose up to

Illinois-based Advocate Aurora Health and North Carolina-based Atrium Health plan to merge, which would create the fifth largest not-for-profit health system by revenues nationally. The hospital chains would create a joint operating system under the name Advocate Health that would operate 67 hospitals across Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama with combined

S&P Global Ratings lifted the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority out from junk territory, upgrading the authority to BBB-minus from BB-plus. The hotel taxes that repay its Soldier Field bonds are on the mend and the agency is no longer putting efforts to spare Chicago’s city government from covering gaps between its tax revenue and debt

The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority pulled in 4.5% more revenues in the first half of its fiscal year compared to its projections while expenditures also increased. PRASA’s larger-than-expected revenues were $24.2 million higher than the projection for July 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2021, the first half of its fiscal 2022 year, while

Municipal triple-A yield curves were steady Tuesday while the focus was on the primary, which kicked into gear with several large new issues out of New York, Oregon and Wisconsin pricing. U.S. Treasuries ended a bit better while munis were little changed on the day and the moves pushed muni to UST ratios higher. Ratios

The implementation process for a Texas law aimed at financial company “boycotts” of the fossil fuel industry led a state municipal bond issuer to drop three underwriters from a recent deal. Meanwhile, another big energy producing state, Oklahoma, enacted a similar law this week. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs removed Barclays, RBC

The Federal Reserve warned of deteriorating liquidity conditions across key financial markets amid rising risks from the war in Ukraine, monetary tightening and high inflation in a semi-annual report published Monday. “According to some measures, market liquidity has declined since late 2021 in the markets for recently-issued U.S. cash Treasury securities and for equity index

The Port of Los Angeles notched its second busiest April in its history even as COVID-19 lockdowns continued in parts of China. The lockdowns that went into effect six weeks ago have not resulted in a dramatic change in the number of vessels or cargo leaving China, POLA Executive Director Gene Seroka said Friday during

A coalition of former transportation officials, advocates and union leaders wrote a letter to California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins urging them to release voter-approved bond funds to move the state’s high-speed rail project forward. The letter is the latest in the skirmish over California’s embattled high-speed rail project,

A drumbeat of criticism is building over a proposed global tax regime that may hurt demand for tax-exempt debt and other U.S. tax credits. What’s not clear is whether Treasury is hearing it. At issue is implementation of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s new minimum global corporate tax rate of 15%, a deal

Municipals were weaker amid more selling pressure to close out the week, U.S. Treasury yields rose with the 10-year sitting firmly above 3% and equities ended in the red. Triple-A muni benchmarks were cut up to four basis points while UST yields rose five to 10 basis points five years and out. Muni to UST

S&P Global Ratings raised Illinois’ ratings by one notch Friday. The action completes a round of upgrades that rewarded the state for progress in tackling chronic strains that were made worse by a two-year budget impasse that dragged the state’s ratings to the edge of junk. S&P lifted the general obligation rating to BBB-plus from

The Texas Natural Gas Securitization Finance Corporation on Friday picked Jefferies to lead a team of underwriters for its upcoming $3.4 billion bond issue for utilities that were hit with high costs during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri. A few members of that team — Morgan Stanley, one of the deal’s co-senior managers, along with co-managers

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot chose Bally’s Corporation from the three short-listed candidates to hold the city’s first casino license, with the promise of a $40 million upfront payment and then a $200 million annual tax jackpot. The selection of the Bally’s $1.7 billion casino and resort development proposal marks a milestone in the city’s decades-long

Wisconsin Capital Finance Director David Erdman will retire in July after a 32-year career with the state, the last seven in the role of debt manager during which the state won upgrades and his stature as an advocate for the issuer community grew. Erdman plans to leave the state July 2 and on July 5

Yuba Water Agency officials say it’s only sheer luck that’s kept its 313,000-acre watershed in California’s Central Valley from burning. Several watersheds around Yuba’s, which suffer the same dry, overstocked conditions amid the state’s extended drought, have experienced megafires, said Joanna Lessard, the agency’s project manager for the watershed resilience and forest health program.  “We’ve

Municipals were mixed as participants mostly sat on sidelines while U.S. Treasuries rallied on the short end after the Fed hiked rates a half-percentage point. Equities rallied to close the day. The 50 basis point rate hike is the steepest increase since 2000 and follows the 25 basis point rate hike in March. The bond

The Philadelphia region saw a 21% increase in tourists last year as more than 36 million people visited the region, according to Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau. The city and the bureau said Wednesday the increase shows tourism is rebounding in the region as the COVD-19 pandemic continues to ease. While the sector saw year-over-year

The U.S. economy will probably fall into a recession as the Federal Reserve combats multidecade-high inflation, Randal Quarles, the Fed’s former vice chair for supervision, said. “Given the intensity of inflation, the degree to which unemployment has been driven down — to bring that back into an equilibrium, it’s unlikely the Fed is going to

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board submitted a proposed Plan of Adjustment for the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority and proposed a confirmation hearing for it to be held in mid-September. The board submitted the proposed plan, proposed Disclosure Statement, and three other motions concerning the legal processes on the road to confirmation on Monday

The Fed’s choreographed rate-raising exercise may well tail off by year’s end, several prominent asset managers said Monday. The managers were speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference Beverly Hills. . “I think the Fed will turn dovish by the end of the year and that will lead to a lot of opportunity on the

Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy process showed that credit fundamentals outweigh legal protections in determining defaults and that pensions continue to be treated better than bonds in recoveries, analysts say. Those lessons and others were outlined in a Wednesday Moody’s Investors Service report, “Puerto Rico bondholder recovery patterns echo major municipal bankruptcies,” authored by Senior Vice President