Bonds

The Chicago Board of Education approved a federal aid-infused budget amid warnings of a financial cliff that could knock it off the track needed to win back investment-grade ratings. The board unanimously approved the $9.3 billion spending package for the fiscal year that began July 1. It directs $707 million toward capital and spends down

The Federal Reserve has toyed for years with opening something called a standing repo facility to prevent short-term rates markets from blowing up. Following a 2019 disruption and another early in the pandemic, the central bank finally took that step. The permanent repurchase-agreement facility, one for domestic firms and another for foreign ones, will backstop

A U.S. Virgin Islands senator has introduced a bill to appoint a “special investigator” to look into malfeasance and corruption at the islands’ financially struggling Water and Power Authority. The bill would require a thorough examination of the authority’s contracts, leases, billing practices, professionals’ credit card use, and its loss of $2 million to an

Municipals were slightly firmer in secondary trading while new-issues were repriced to lower yields from initial pricing wires. U.S. Treasuries were stronger and equities sold off ahead of the FOMC meeting Wednesday. The current market technicals combined with a slowdown in issuance is creating a general malaise in the municipal market, according to a New

“Have you seen the price of taco seasoning lately?” Thus began my most recent conversation with Kelly Brown, CEO of The American Deposit Management Co. (ADM). Kelly admitted she rarely looks at prices in the supermarket, but when she saw a package of taco seasoning priced at $1.79, she was taken aback. Kelly and I

Municipals were stronger on the short end, hitting record low levels for the second time this year, in quiet trading while U.S. Treasuries were treading water and equities did much the same as all markets await Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting announcement. Triple-A benchmarks moved one to two basis points lower inside of five

MarketAxess is growing a pilot program that helps buy-side institutions and minority, women- and veteran-owned broker dealers more easily trade with one another in the secondary on the firm’s platform. The Diversity Dealer Initiative leverages MarketAxess’ anonymous all-to-all Open Trading marketplace and provides enhanced trading connections by allowing investor clients to select a diversity dealer

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board cast doubt Friday on a temporary deal between the truckers and the interim governor which is pausing the truckers’ strike. Around 9:30 p.m. Thursday Gov. Pedro Pierluisi announced the temporary deal in two tweets. The deal was with the striking truckers’ union, Frente Amplio de Camioneros. Pierluisi was off the

Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. agreed to pay $230 million to resolve federal charges in connection with an alleged bribery scheme involving a $1 billion public bailout for two nuclear power plants owned by a bankrupt subsidiary with municipal debt. Federal authorities charged the public utility holding company with conspiring to commit honest services wire fraud.

What bond-market guru Mohammed El-Erian said Friday was enough to make bond investors listen like they’re in an old E.F. Hutton commercial. “Inflation is not going to be transitory,” the chief economic adviser at Allianz SE said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. El-Erian likened it to his belief in 1999 that Argentina would default,

Municipals were steady in typical summer Friday style ahead of a less-than-robust new-issue calendar to end July. The U.S. Treasury 10-year ends 10 basis points higher than it started the week, but back to levels of a week ago, while the stock market rallied and earnings pushed them to all-time record highs Friday. Triple-A benchmarks

The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority plans to refund $1.8 billion of outstanding 2012 debt in an August deal, coming into a market that is starved for high-yield paper. For several months the authority and the Puerto Rico Oversight Board has mentioned the possibility of refunding the authority’s Series 2012A bonds. On Friday it

A busy Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board quarterly board meeting saw Patrick Brett selected as fiscal year 2022 chair, the adoption of a multi-year strategic plan, decisions on several regulatory initiatives and the adoption of a $43 million operating budget. Those and other developments emerged at the MSRB’s in-person meeting held July 21-22 in Washington. Brett,

Analysts say a strike of Puerto Rico truckers is a threat to the island’s economy and a challenge for the Oversight Board. The board spent a page in the most recent fiscal plan talking about the need to not extend the minimum rates to privately negotiated trucking contracts. The truckers are striking for this as

Buoyed by strong economic growth, Washington will sell $733.4 million of general obligation bonds competitively next week to support school construction, highway projects and a hybrid electric ferry. Ratings analysts pointed to the strength of the state’s economy and its ability to manage through the pandemic in affirming investment grade ratings of Aaa from Moody’s

The top bond counsel firms combined for a total of $220.03 billion in 6,077 transactions in the first half of 2021, up from the $191.51 billion in 5,124 deals in the first half of 2020. Only one firm remained in the same spot they were at this point last year, the rest of the rankings

Increasing attention to whether inflation is a problem for the U.S. economy and financial markets isn’t resolved easily by looking at the most recent economic and financial market data. COVID-19-related economy and market adjustments continue to confound market observers and policy makers. Inflation likely will surprise on the upside, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reminds us,

eMerge Americas, a venture-backed platform focused on changing Miami into the tech hub of the Americas, closed a round of investment led by Florida Funders, the firm announced on Tuesday. Florida Funders is a a venture capital fund and an angel investor network, and its investment in eMerge Americas is aimed at helping Miami’s tech

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts has completed work on a white paper calling for targeted emergency event disclosures from state and local governments. The document, dated June but announced earlier this month by NFMA, is the final draft of a paper first floated in March. While the paper focuses on COVID-19 disclosure, NFMA has

Municipals underperformed a flight-to-safety rally in U.S. Treasuries as COVID-19 and its variants surge around the globe, pushing edgy investors to flee the stock market, as some contemplate the idea the economic recovery has peaked, and will potentially regress from the virus’ effects. Municipal triple-A benchmarks were pushed to lower yields by one to three