Bonds

President Biden said Monday his Justice Department will defend current law that denies Supplemental Security Income benefits to Puerto Rico residents but he called on congress to amend the Social Security Act to extend those benefits. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled in April 2020 that the prevailing federal practice of

The Chicago Transit Authority heads into the market next week to refund $127 million of federal grant anticipation-backed bonds with positive rating news in tow. S&P Global Ratings lifted its outlook to positive from stable on a portion of the CTA’s grant-backed bonds being refunded, citing improving coverage ratios. S&P also moved the outlook to

There’s so much spare cash sloshing around U.S. funding markets that investors are choosing to park almost half a trillion dollars at the central bank — earning absolutely nothing. Usage of the Federal Reserve’s reverse repo facility — a mechanism that’s part of the central bank’s arsenal for helping to steer short-term interest rates —

Municipals were a touch firmer Friday with a few stronger high-grade prints clearing at levels to move triple-A benchmarks a basis point better while U.S. Treasuries were also a basis point or two lower ahead of what will be a low-issuance week to start the summer. All triple-A benchmark 10-year yields are now below 1%,

San Diego’s regional transportation planning agency introduced a $160 billion draft regional plan that hinges on high-density housing development along transit lines. The 30-year plan drafted by the 21-member board of the San Diego Association of Governments has the support of environmental and labor groups though it faces opposition from some Republicans and anti-tax groups.

The Biden administration is proposing the authorization of $50 billion in direct-pay qualified School Infrastructure Bonds and doubling the limit on tax-exempt private activity bonds for transportation infrastructure to $30 billion. The Treasury’s so-called Green Book of proposed changes to tax law released Friday also calls for an enhancement of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit

Proposed legislation to move Chicago Public Schools to a fully-elected, 21-member school board without any city role raises “dangerous” financial questions, Chicago Civic Federation President Laurence Msall warned lawmakers. Among the key questions: will the city government continue to transfer money to a school district it no longer controls? CPS governance is in the crosshairs

The Federal Reserve’s prestigious annual Jackson Hole policy symposium will be held in person this year, albeit in a modified form, according to a statement Thursday from hosts the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The yearly retreat of the world’s top central bankers and economists went virtual in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,

Municipals saw one to three basis point bumps to benchmark yield curves while new issues repriced by as much as 10 basis points lower into a stronger, issuer-friendly market, as the 10-year fell below 1% on most scales. The Investment Company Institute reported $1.27 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds, marking the 11th

Despite recent large monthly gains, Fitch Ratings said it will take the U.S. job market another 18 months to create the 7 million jobs needed to recover from the economic shocks wrought by the pandemic. Fitch doesn’t expect the U.S. labor market to return to full employment, which it estimates at 4.3%, until the fourth

U.S. central bank officials may be able to begin discussing the appropriate timing of scaling back their bond-buying program at upcoming policy meetings, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida said. “It may well be” that “in upcoming meetings, we’ll be at the point where we can begin discuss scaling back the pace of asset purchases,”

Municipals improved Tuesday on the backs of a strong primary led by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s $788 million green bonds and gilt-edged Loudoun County, Virginia, and the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank, which sold competitively with tight spreads. Triple-A municipal benchmark yield curves were bumped one to two basis points, lagging a four basis

The tide has turned for some Illinois public universities’ already bruised ratings as COVID-19 pressures on their balance sheet and state funding levels ease. S&P Global Ratings on Friday upgraded the University of Illinois, the state’s flagship, by two notches noting its resilient balance sheet independent of state help and analysts revised the outlook on

Raphael Bostic, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta president, says he hears frequent speculation that he could be nominated to lead the central bank. “I hear about it all the time,” Bostic said, according to an Axios account of the outlet’s interview on Axios on HBO. President Joe Biden hasn’t indicated who he will name, but

Red flags waved as Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza proposed issuing $704 million in pension obligation bonds to deal with a pestering unfunded liability problem in Rhode Island’s capital city. The amount exceeds the city’s annual operating budget. Bond markets often frown on such borrowing and sentiment among state officials who must sign off is uncertain.

Illinois will dip into its growing pot of tax revenues to pay off the remaining $2.175 billion of outstanding debt borrowed through the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility to manage last year’s COVID-19 tax blows. The Treasury Department’s interim guidance, released May 10, barring debt repayment as an eligible use of American Rescue Plan dollars

Municipal bonds were little changed Friday ahead of a $7 billion holiday-shortened week — led by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s $800 million-plus green bond deal — as investors head into the last week before the June reinvestment season begins. There are 19 deals larger than $100 million in a mixture of credits that

The Federal Reserve should get a conversation going on tapering its bond-purchase program “sooner rather than later,” Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said, adding his voice to a growing minority of U.S. central bank officials signaling the process should begin sometime soon. “It is something that, in my mind, we should start to have a

Factors pushing U.S. inflation higher are likely to ebb at the start of 2022, said Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly. “There’s just going to be a sequence of these temporary factors that are going to persist probably through the end of the year,” Daly said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg

Nicholas Falgione, 55, of Wexford, Pa., a longtime municipal banker and managing director at PNC Capital Markets, died on May 12 after a three-year battle with liver cancer. He joined PNC in 2013 as a managing director based in Pittsburgh as part of the expansion of the firm’s public finance teams in Pennsylvania and Florida.