Bonds

Secondary trading saw an uptick and some pressures emerged on munis, but benchmark yield curves were little changed to weaker by a basis point in spots, again outperforming taxables. U.S. Treasuries slid further with the largest rise in yields on the long bond, and equities made gains after a mixed open. ICE Data Services and

Minnesota expects a $7.7 billion surplus in its current two-year budget, a dramatic turnaround from a year ago when red ink driven by the pandemic’s anticipated tax blows loomed. The state’s November 2020 budgetary and economic forecast warned of a $1.3 billion gap in the fiscal 2022-2023 for Gov. Tim Walz and lawmakers to deal

Municipal secondary trading was light and triple-A benchmark yields left unchanged as the large primary diverted attention while U.S. Treasuries were weaker again and equities rallied. Trading was down 18% from Monday, which was already a light day at $5.6 billion par traded, as new issues were the focus and provided some direction. The day’s

TRANSCRIPT:Mike Scarchilli: (00:00)Hi, this is Mike Scarchilli editor in chief of the bond buyer. Welcome to the future of infrastructure, our new podcast. It’s a series of deep dives into us, infrastructure opportunities, investments, and impact for our first installment. I’m pleased to welcome investigative journalist, Peter Keating in this four part series build what

Chicago heads into the market this week with an upsized $2.2 billion refinancing under its general obligation and Sales Tax Securitization Corp. credits after finalizing the results of a tender and exchange offer. “It’s roundly about $1 billion more for the results of the tender,” Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett’s office said in

WASHINGTON — President Biden ended the guessing game last month over his choice to run the Federal Reserve Board when he announced the renomination of Chair Jerome Powell to another term leading the central bank. But Powell’s reappointment along with the nomination of Gov. Lael Brainard to one of two vice chair positions only provided

Eric Adams has about a month before his Jan. 1 swearing in as New York mayor to prepare for his first budget presentation. While he inherits a city with roughly $15 billion in multiple rounds of emergency federal funding, better-than-expected revenue and diminished outyear budget gaps, a raft of fiscal variables will confront him at

Mark Zehner has retired from his position as deputy chief of the Office of Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit at the Securities and Exchange Commission after almost 25 years with the regulator, passing the torch to Rebecca Olsen, former director of the office of municipal securities. Zehner’s last day with the Commission was Nov.

The Bay Area Toll Authority’s plans to price $1.3 billion in toll bridge revenue bonds next week are expected to see robust demand, even as the seven-bridge system sees a softer pandemic recovery than other tollway credits in the U.S. Lead managers BofA Securities, Citi and JP Morgan, along with co-manager Goldman Sachs & Co.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Ernesto A. Lanza as the new acting director for the Office of Municipal Securities. The announcement of the appointment came after Rebecca Olsen’s move from director to deputy chief became public following the retirement of longtime regulator and former deputy chief Mark Zehner. “I look forward to working

After a full seven trading sessions of volatility in U.S. Treasuries and equities, municipals ended Friday quiet, little changed, and again ignored the moves in other markets. Treasuries saw yields fall and equities sold off on lower-than-expected employment figures while triple-A municipal benchmark yields were steady to firmer by a basis point in spots. This

The U.S. toll road sector is expected to continue its upward trajectory in 2022, as median tolled traffic and revenue growth are slated to exceed 2% and 4%, respectively. That’s according to Moody’s Investors Service’s U.S. toll road report released on Dec. 2nd. Toll road traffic saw its steepest ever decline in 2020 as a

Municipals continued to cut their own path and were little changed with a few large deals taking the focus again Thursday even as U.S. Treasury yields rose and equities rallied. Stocks rose on optimism the latest COVID variant “won’t completely upend economic activity,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. “The next couple of

California is well-positioned to qualify for the plethora of federal broadband infrastructure money available through the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, according to Sen. Alex Padilla and others who spoke during an online event Tuesday. California Forward and California Emerging Technology Fund hosted the online webinar with Padilla, D-Calif., and several other speakers. The topic: what

Municipals were mostly steady throughout the day and the primary was the focus while U.S. Treasuries whipsawed and stocks sold off after the first Omicron case was reported in California. The Investment Company Institute reported $974 million of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds and another round of small outflows from exchange-traded funds. Treasuries ended

Puerto Rico’s General Fund net revenues came in 17.4% ahead of Oversight Board projections in the first quarter of the fiscal year. Revenues measured on an accrual basis were also 10.4% ahead of the first quarter of the prior fiscal year, according to data released by the Puerto Rico Treasury. Puerto Rico Secretary of the

Municipals were stronger Tuesday as U.S. Treasuries rallied and stocks sold off on Omicron variant concerns and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments on speeding up tapering the Fed’s bond buying sooner than originally expected. It is appropriate to “consider ramping up tapering” and it will be discussed at the next FOMC meeting, when more

The U.S. Virgin Islands’ government is looking into refunding $1 billion of its matching fund bonds to address underfunding of its pension system. “There is a compelling argument for acting on this fourth attempt to pursue another Matching Fund securitization as interest rates remain not far off of historic lows and credit spreads remain relatively

Municipals were little changed Monday while U.S. Treasuries pared back some of Friday’s gains and equities rebounded as markets generally calmed after initial Omicron fears were digested. Economists don’t appear to be too concerned about the latest COVID-19 variant. “Even if Omicron causes another pandemic wave, it is more likely to slow rather than interrupt

With the recent passage of infrastructure legislation in Washington, I am reminded how important the tax-exempt municipal market is to our nation’s ability to finance infrastructure through the multitude of municipal issuers across the country. At the same time, I am perplexed as to why municipal market issuance has been stuck in the range of