Bonds

Municipal securities dealer groups said Friday they are opposed to the creation of a $20 billion Infrastructure Financing Authority as part of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework announced Thursday. Other public finance groups have varying positions. National Association of Counties spokesman Paul Guequierre said in an email, “Counties support federal investments in infrastructure using

Municipals called it a summer Friday with the secondary lightly traded and benchmarks little changed, even as U.S. Treasury yields rose, munis took a break from the relative volatility since the FOMC meeting midmonth. After a week and change of underperformance to U.S. Treasuries, where ratios moved higher for the first time since early in

Puerto Rico’s government may soon adopt a 24% increase in the island’s minimum wage, with local observers saying it would raise costs for businesses and actually cut employment participation. On Tuesday the Puerto Rico Senate approved a bill raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour from the federal $7.25 per hour. The Puerto Rico

A California bill that would require cities and counties to post on their websites how much police brutality and misconduct lawsuits cost them annually is gaining momentum. Assembly Bill 603, authored by Assembly Member Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, passed with a unanimous vote in the Assembly and is being heard July 5 in the Senate Committee

The Federal Reserve might consider an interest-rate hike from near zero as soon as late 2022 as the labor market reaches full employment and inflation is at the central bank’s goal, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said. “The criteria is that we have a sustainable inflation rate, that’s 2% or above, and

Municipals were little changed Thursday as the final new issues of the week priced with some bumps in repricings while U.S. Treasuries held steady. Refinitiv Lipper reported nearly $2 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds. Fund flows continue to pour into municipal bond mutual funds, making up at least a quarter of the

Cook County, Illinois’ pandemic-driven fiscal wounds are on the mend with a surplus now expected this year and $121 million hole to close in 2022 that’s a shadow of last year’s $410 million gap. “It has been an exceptionally difficult last year but a combination of revenue bouncing back as the county opens up, federal

A change in how Moody’s Investors Service approaches lease-backed obligation ratings resulted in downgrades to six lease-revenue bonds supporting federal leases on privately owned property. The change in methodology came after Moody’s analysts realized the federal government had refinanced debt totaling $1.3 billion tied to six leased properties using an amortization structure that will result

Illinois moved closer to winning an upgrade thanks to budgetary steps in the right direction and a rosier revenue trajectory that Fitch Ratings recognized in raising the state’s outlook to positive from negative. Fitch on Wednesday affirmed the state’s BBB-minus general obligation rating — still the lowest investment grade score — and the BBB-plus assigned

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the price increases seen in the economy recently are bigger than expected but reiterated that they will likely wane. “A pretty substantial part, or perhaps all of the overshoot in inflation comes from categories that are directly affected by the re-opening of the economy such as used cars and

Municipals saw some weakness and yield pressure on certain primary deals in repricings following an up and down U.S. Treasury market. Triple-A benchmark yields rose on bonds 10-years and out with one to two basis point cuts to scales. New issues saw a mixture of bumps and cuts on Tuesday, reflecting a general spread widening

Gov. Phil Murphy and top New Jersey legislative leaders have come to terms on key middle-class tax relief and property tax relief measures in the fiscal 2022 budget. The agreement, part of last year’s deal to enact a millionaire’s tax, essentally begins a slow rollout of an overall budget bill, whih could pass later this

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said inflation had picked up but should move back toward the U.S. central bank’s 2% target once supply imbalances resolve. “Inflation has increased notably in recent months,” Powell said in written remarks prepared for his Tuesday testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, citing increases in oil

A coalition involving California Forward and the California State Association of Counties wants the state’s final version of the budget to include the governor’s Broadband for All proposal, not the legislature’s. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s broadband plan taps $5.5 billion from the flexible funding from the America Rescue Plan Act as part of his $7 billion

Inflation risks may warrant the Federal Reserve beginning raising interest rates next year, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said, backing an even-earlier liftoff than penciled in by many of his colleagues. “I put us starting in late 2022,” Bullard said Friday during a TV interview on CNBC, referring to interest-rate projections published Wednesday by

A new opinion issued by the Justice Department says Puerto Rico’s admission as a state could legally include a transition period to temporarily continue the special bankruptcy provisions under PROMESA. That’s good news for the ongoing restructuring of the territory’s debt because it provides an assurance that statehood would not necessarily involve an abrupt dissolution

Municipal bond yields rose on the short end Friday as munis again played catch up to the moves in short U.S. Treasuries and investors became more aggressive in bid lists for high-grade paper. The UST note, 0.785% on Tuesday, touched 0.96% in the afternoon and was at 0.89% near the close Friday, leading to the

Illinois spread penalties narrowed this month to levels in line with its ratings for the first time in years as the state reaps the benefits of swelling tax revenues, federal cash and a market looking for scarce yield. The state’s 10-year spread currently stands at 63 basis points higher than Refinitiv Municipal Market Data’s AAA

Parties have filed nearly 30 objections to the Puerto Rico Oversight Board’s proposed Disclosure Statement for its central government debt Plan of Adjustment, with a key complaint coming from the Puerto Rico government, which said it will not authorize new bonds if pensions are cut. The parties had until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to file

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will sign newly-passed legislation handing mayoral control of the Chicago Public Schools to a fully-elected school board by 2027 even as negotiations continue over some board rules and the impact on the city’s $500 million in annual financial obligations. The package laid out in an amendment to House Bill 2908 was