Bonds

Municipals were mostly steady Monday in light trading, with some slight weakness on the long end, while U.S. Treasuries were little changed and equities ended mixed. Triple-A benchmark yields rose a basis point or two in spots while UST were little moved from Friday’s levels. The municipal to UST ratio five-year was at 66%, 75%

Idaho received its second rating upgrade in four months when Moody’s Investors Service elevated the state’s issuer rating to Aaa from Aa1 on Thursday. The upgrade reflects the state’s continued positive economic and demographic outlook and efforts to increase reserves to protect against the state’s volatile economic and revenue structure, Moody’s analysts wrote. Also upgraded

Two Michigan-based systems — Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health — formally joined forces this week after clearing heightened anti-trust scrutiny ordered by the Biden administration across a swath of sectors last summer. The not-for-profit systems announced their intention to merge by signing a letter of intent in June 2021. One month later, the Biden administration launched

Parties filing appeals of the Puerto Rico Plan of Adjustment face an uphill battle as the bankruptcy judge who approved the plan would need to grant a stay of it for appeals to proceed, lawyers said. Four notices of appeal had been filed in the U.S. District Court for Puerto Rico concerning the plan as

New Jersey has followed through on plans to use its budget surplus to trim its debt load. More than $3 billion in principal and interest on New Jersey bonds has been retired, the state Department of the Treasury said on Thursday. New Jersey allocated $3.7 billion in the state’s fiscal 2022 budget to cut outstanding

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said investors need to brace for the Federal Reserve to potentially raise interest rates at all seven remaining policy meetings this year and even for it to hike by more than a quarter point in one go. “Markets have to be prepared for a rate hike in every meeting

Municipals were slightly weaker, particularly on the long end, but the asset class outperformed a selloff in U.S. Treasuries after a stronger-than-expected jobs report. January’s payrolls surged 467,000, and December’s were revised up to 510,000 from 199,000, causing Treasury yields to spike. “The inflation battle for the Fed and their monetary policy will be a

Municipals were stronger on Thursday with yields falling another two to five basis points on triple-A yield curves and new-issues fared well while Refinitiv Lipper reported $2.9 billion of outflows, marking the largest negative flows in nearly two years. The last time outflows were above $2 billion was on April 8, 2020 when they hit

Amid fresh controversy surrounding a December Federal Highway Administration memo, the U.S. Department of Transportation said the memo does not in fact restrict the use of infrastructure funds for new highway capacity projects as feared by some state transportation advocates. The controversy stems from a Dec. 16 FHWA memo that advised states to spend federal

Illinois would pump up now near-empty rainy day fund, pay more of its bills down, bolster scheduled pension contributions, and provide one-time tax relief under budget plans Gov. J.B. Pritzker laid out Wednesday. The state expects an additional $2.2 billion of revenue, about 5% of general funds, in fiscal 2022 and another $2 billion in

Automated vehicles are more than just a transportation issue for cities and states, and could mean declining transportation revenue and increased sprawl and congestion. Those are some of the possible “cascading” impacts on communities brought about by the rise of driverless vehicles in the future, according to Nico Larco, director of the Urbanism Next Center

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said he would like to raise interest rates at the central bank’s meetings in March and May but played down the benefits of a larger-than-expected move. “Fifty basis points, I don’t think helps us — at least sitting here today, I don’t think that really helps

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin praised all five of President Biden’s nominees for the Federal Reserve, an important signal for their confirmations in the 50-50 Senate. “They all look extremely qualified,” the West Virginia senator, who is a pivotal vote, said Tuesday of the nominees. While Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell likely faces easy confirmation to

Municipals ended the month in the red but yields rose only a basis point or two on most triple-A scales on Monday while U.S. Treasuries were also softer and equities rallied hard. Triple-A benchmark yields rose slightly as did UST, keeping muni to UST ratios in a higher range. The municipal to UST ratio five-year

Chicago-based investment bank Loop Capital Markets LLC acquired the Miami-based investment advisory firm Taplin, Canida & Habacht LLC from BMO Asset Management Corp. in a deal that extends its asset management reach. The deal closed Jan. 28 and was announced Monday. BMO reported last June that it had signed a letter of intent that set

AllianceBernstein has partnered with Vestmark, Inc., to provide a digital separately managed account platform that allows registered investment advisors to create more bespoke muni portfolios within a matter of days. The Custom Municipal SMA Solutions platform combines AllianceBernstein’s fixed-income trading tool, AbbieOptimizer, with Vestmark’s ability to access timely and accurate fixed-income tax-lot data from custodians

President Joe Biden Friday visited the site of a major Pittsburgh bridge that collapsed just hours before he was scheduled to visit the city to highlight his infrastructure spending plan. Looking at the 450-foot collapsed span, Biden pledged the White House would “fix them all,” referring to thousands of bridges needing investment nationally. “We’re sending

Michigan’s multi-billion dollar revenue windfall puts tax relief front and center for Democrats and Republicans alike as the legislative session and budget season heats up. While both sides of the aisle are pushing for tax cuts, the form they would take remains the subject of debate. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who is up for

Municipal yields rose double digits Friday bringing levels to highs not seen since early April 2020. The short end of triple-A scales has risen more than 30 basis points over the past five sessions on elevated selling pressure and overall market volatility. Triple-A yields rose by six to 10 basis points and ratios increased again

Credit unions and teachers’ associations separately filed notices of appeal of the court-approved Puerto Rico Plan of Adjustment Friday afternoon. The teachers’ associations will ask the appeals court to stay implementation of the plan, said Bufete Emmanuelli Partner Jessica Méndez Colberg. In the last week the Oversight Board said it was hoping the plan could