Bonds

VanEck launched a municipal exchange-traded fund with a sustainability designation, the first ETF of its kind in the municipal space. The VanEck HIP Sustainable Municipal fund, SMI ticker, introduced Friday, is an actively managed fund focusing on investment-grade state and local government debt that funds projects promoting sustainable development, including affordable housing, green spaces and

Municipal bonds were little changed, ignoring another reversal in U.S. Treasuries on Friday ahead of a larger-than-average $10 billion-plus calendar led by California, Texas and New York issuers. Triple-A benchmarks were unmoved again Friday while the 10-year UST rose four basis points and the 30-year four. As such, ratios fell slightly with the 10-year muni-to-Treasury

Municipals were little changed, underperforming a U.S. Treasury rate reversal from Wednesday as all eyes were on the primary with Minnesota selling $897 million of general obligation bonds to strong reception. Triple-A benchmarks were unmoved while the 10-year UST fell four basis points and the 30-year five. As such, ratios rose slightly with the 10-year

The presidents of the Federal Reserve banks of Boston and Dallas said Thursday they would sell their individual stock holdings by Sept. 30 and invest the proceeds in diversified index funds or hold them in cash. The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve buildingBloomberg News Eric Rosengren, head of the Boston Fed, and Robert Kaplan, president

Title: Director Public Finance — Credit StrategyFirm: Wells FargoAge: 39 Kristen Fontana always had an affinity for the policy side of public finance. After dipping her toes into public finance with an internship at an investment bank during the financial crisis, she decided to go back to school for a graduate degree. There, Kristen said,

The Puerto Rico Planning Board is more optimistic for economic growth for the next 10 years than the Oversight Board is in its adopted fiscal plan. This Planning Board, the local government body that analyzes economic data and makes economic and demographic projections, expects an average 1.04% real Gross National Product growth from fiscal 2022

Municipals were little changed to a touch weaker out longer Tuesday, outperforming U.S. Treasuries, which saw yields rise as much as five basis points, while equities were mixed on the day. Ratios fell slightly out longer with the municipal to UST 10-year ratio at 70% and the 30-year at 77%, per Refinitiv MMD. The 10-year

Melissa Norcia was appointed the chief administrative officer for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System on Tuesday. Norcia starts September 15 and replaces Lisa Blatnick, who became CalSTRS chief operating officer in August. CalSTRS was established by law in 1913 to provide retirement benefits to California’s public school educators from prekindergarten through community college. Today,

As California coastal cities look for methods to avert the harsh realities of the state’s second drought in a decade, desalination has returned as a hot topic. In San Diego County, the drought makes the argument that the controversial choice to build a coastside desalination plant was correct. The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant

Chicago’s finance team dug in this week on it plan to scrap $950 million of scoop-and-toss borrowing amid pushback from council members who want the city to put more federal COVID-19 pandemic relief toward social investments. Several council members pressed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s finance team to consider some limited form of debt restructuring to free

The catastrophic remnants of Hurricane Ida snuck up on Northeast states Wednesday, catching officials and the general population off-guard. But such a storm, still delivering massive amounts of rain more than 1,300 miles from its Louisiana landfall, is no outlier, one New Jersey climate official warned. “It may be a different animal, as you put

In a prolonged low-interest-rate environment, many issuers may have paid little heed to arbitrage on bond proceeds. But that could change, and municipal advisors and bond counsel are staying vigilant on their clients’ behalf. “Declining interest rates make it generally easier to manage arbitrage,” said Adam Harden, partner at Locke Lord in Texas. “Post-issuance compliance

California received an outlook boost to positive from S&P Global Ratings as the state prepares to sell more than $2 billion of general obligation bonds. The deal will land the week of a Sept. 14 recall election targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom. But California’s surplus and budgetary changes that occurred after the 2008 economic crash will

Jennifer Fredericks joined Ice Miller LLP last month to take on the newly created role of director of business development for public finance. Fredericks left Bank of New York Mellon, where she was a vice president of business development for the corporate trust group, to take the Ice Miller position. At BNY Mellon she led

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to extend the deadline to pass the Series 54 exam two weeks to Nov. 30, 2021, from the previous date of Nov. 12. The extension comes, as promised, shortly after the agency began offering remote examinations following news that a municipal

The municipal market was little changed on Friday as a disappointing August jobs number punctuated an otherwise lackluster day of light trading activity ahead of the Labor Day holiday. Trading fell to a trickle at about $2.1 billion near the close and triple-A benchmarks were unmoved, outperforming a cheaper U.S. Treasury market which saw the

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi asked the bankruptcy judge to pause an Oversight Board suit against a law the board says would scuttle the Plan of Adjustment. Pierluisi’s lawyers filed the request with Judge Laura Taylor Swain Wednesday evening in an adversary proceeding part of the bankruptcy. Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, left, argued that

The municipal market traded sideways and activity was muted on Thursday as U.S. Treasuries were steady and equities in the black ahead of the much-anticipated employment report to be released Friday. Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.044 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Sept. 1, down from the $1.9 billion a

Widespread Puerto Rico power outages this week are highlighting the extended age of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s infrastructure and its impact on the economy. The outages affected 33% to 37% of the authority’s customers since Monday and will continue to afflict many for a few more days, according to PREPA. Demand has been

Municipal trading dropped 25% on Wednesday after an already very slow few days in the secondary, leaving municipal benchmark yields little changed, as U.S. Treasuries also held steady and most participants began checking out for the holiday weekend. For the 25th week in a row, municipal bond mutual funds saw inflows of nearly $2 billion,