Bonds

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board asked the Puerto Rico bankruptcy court Monday to continue to hear a suit against a local law that would scuttle the negotiated debt Plan of Adjustment. Lawyers for Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi filed a motion to stay the adversary proceeding, which is like a suit, on Aug. 25. Puerto

Municipals were little changed to a touch weaker on Monday, underperforming a slightly better U.S. Treasury market while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallied. The New York City Transitional Finance Authority priced $950 million of future tax-secured bonds for day one of a two-day retail order period. Nearly all categories of municipals appear poised to

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi is expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit program for the island, which along with another expansion of a federal program, will likely aid the island’s economy, experts said. The federal government will provide $612 million a year for 10 years for the expanded credit, if the local government continues to

The Puerto Rico Senate approved a hike in the island’s minimum wage Thursday. The legislation would lift the minimum to $8.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2022, and $9.50 on July 2023. A third increase, to $10.50 per hour, was agreed for July 1, 2024, but subject to the evaluation of a newly created Minimum

Unfunded retiree health-care benefits are the most material long-term liability for about one in 10 states and local governments, Moody’s Investors Service says. Retirement liabilities other than pensions — other-post employment liabilities, or OPEB — were roughly $1.1 trillion for the 50 states and more than 7,000 cities, counties and K-12 school districts that Moody’s

Alternative trading system platforms provide the value of visible liquidity and price discovery in the marketplace, especially for municipal securities that are not widely known and transacted when directly compared to broker’s broker platforms, according to a new MSRB report. The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board report compares trading activity on ATS platforms versus broker’s broker

Surging COVID-19 hospitalization rates driven by the highly contagious Delta variant threaten to set back the not-for-profit healthcare sector’s recovery and pose new uncertainties, new reports warn. Hospitalizations are trending upward in all states with the 14-day increase at double-digit percentages for all but a few. The most daunting strains that could negatively impact hospital

Municipals were little changed in light trading on the last Friday of August as U.S. Treasuries made gains as did equities following Federal reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech. The total potential volume for next week is estimated at $4.938 billion, an expected drop as the unofficial final week of summer comes ahead

Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard spoke with the Biden-Harris Federal Reserve transition team in January and with the president’s Council of Economic Advisers in May, her calendar shows. The meeting with the Fed transition team occurred Jan. 8 and included Gary Gensler, who is now Securities and Exchange Commission chairman. Brainard’s diaries were provided to

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board is trying to exercise control over the local government’s use of tax incentives, arguing Puerto Rico may be losing more than $260 million of annual potential revenue because of them. For several years the board has complained the local government has granted too many tax incentives to corporations and individuals.

Weakness moved out the yield curve Thursday as secondary bid-wanteds were still elevated while U.S. Treasuries pared earlier losses and equities sold off in the afternoon as news out of Afghanistan grew worse. For the 25th straight week, Refinitiv Lipper reported inflows into municipal bond funds. Investors put $1.9 billion of cash into the mutual

As California lawmakers head into the fall to wrangle over budget trailer bills and begin to contemplate next year’s budget, they will do so with a robust piggy bank. California revenues continued to beat expectations, coming in $1.5 billion above the 2021-22 Budget Act forecast of $8.4 billion for July, according to the California Department

Municipals faced some pressure and benchmark yield curves were cut by one to two basis points Wednesday. Municipals largely have shrugged off a weaker U.S. Treasury market and outperformed while mutual funds saw another $2 billion-plus week of inflows. The 10- and 30-year UST have risen nine basis points since Monday, while munis have only

Members of the Puerto Rico Oversight Board met Puerto Rico’s government leaders on Tuesday to discuss the board’s proposed Plan of Adjustment, including dealing with unresolved pension payment disagreements between the parties. Some board members have sought a “grand bargain” with the local government to gain its support for the plan, which they hope would

Kroll Bond Rating Agency raised its outlook on Chicago’s general obligation bonds to stable from negative and affirmed the city’s GO rating at A. “The stable outlook assignment and the outlook revision on the outstanding GO bonds recognizes the tenor of actions taken by the city’s management in confronting COVID-19 induced challenges, an improved revenue

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit District to AA from AA-plus. The rating agency also maintained its negative outlook at the lower rating. Fitch’s action Thursday affects BART’s issuer default rating and $686 million in taxable sales tax revenue bonds. The agency had just shy of $2 billion of long-term

Municipals were unmoved in light trading to start the last week of August while U.S. Treasuries maintained Friday’s levels and equities advanced on news the FDA gave the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine full approval. Municipal benchmark yield curves continued to hold steady for the seventh day as investors await a diverse primary that includes gilt-edged Montgomery

Filmmakers working in North Carolina are on track to have a $409 million economic impact on the state’s finances this year, Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday. These investments are on track to be the biggest since the creation of the state’s Film and Entertainment Grant program in 2014, Cooper said, during a press conference at

Northeast municipal issuers sold $59.9 billion of debt over the first six months of this year, up 4.8% from the same period of 2020 as states, cities and agencies adjusted to the COVID-19 environment and other variables. That included a 13.3% spike in the first quarter, to $29.5 billion from $26 billion. Many traditional issuers,

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said he’s open to adjusting his view that the Federal Reserve should start tapering its asset-purchase program sooner rather than later if the Delta variant persists and hurts economic progress. The Fed is currently buying $80 billion per month in Treasuries and $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities in an effort