Bonds

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

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

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

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

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

Municipal securities trading volume fell significantly over the past 15 years, led by a drop in short-term paper, while trading volumes increased markedly during months of economic uncertainty and market dislocation, a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board analysis found. The board, in its new analysis of trading volumes and activity over the last 15-year period, singled

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 Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on Wednesday named central-bank insider Lorie Logan as its next president, succeeding Robert Kaplan, who resigned last year following disclosures about his personal trading activity in 2020. Logan, 49, currently oversees implementation of the Fed’s monetary policy as manager of the Fed’s $9 trillion securities portfolio and executive vice

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

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Tuesday defended the use of big pandemic aid packages from accusations that they contribute to inflation, telling lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee that the stimulus helped avoid what could have been another Great Depression. Yellen also said the stalled Build Back Better bill would not spark higher inflation – which

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

Emerging mostly unscathed from COVID-19’s stresses, New York-based Northwell Health returns to market with $735 million of A-minus rated bonds Tuesday, its first deal since 2019. Northwell is the largest health network in New York City, which experienced some of the sharpest and earliest impacts of the pandemic in the United States. Northwell has a

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

In our first-quarter municipal (muni) bond outlook, the twin risks of higher inflation and rising interest rates were a key focus.  We maintain now, as we did then, that these risks could also present opportunities in certain corners of the fixed-income market, especially among shorter-duration municipal bonds.  At the end of 2021 into the early