Bonds

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.

Municipal high-grade benchmarks were little changed for the fourth day as U.S. Treasuries improved, as did equities, and Refinitiv Lipper reported heavy high-yield inflows. Fund inflows continue to be in positive territory with Refinitiv reporting $725 million of total inflows into municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending May 19. High-yield funds made up

With the era of the federal gas tax as a viable mechanism for funding infrastructure coming to an end, proposals are emerging that could get the municipal market heavily involved in rebuilding aging surface projects. The seemingly accelerating demise of the gas tax and what to do about the infrastructure funding challenge was a major

Municipal benchmarks were unchanged top to bottom Wednesday as investors focused on the robust primary offerings, underwriters repriced bonds to lower yields while issuers saw good demand in the competitive markets as munis largely ignored FOMC taper talk and the weakness in U.S. Treasuries that followed the news. Discussions about tapering asset purchases could soon

Municipal benchmark yields continued to trade in a narrow range in the secondary Tuesday while the new-issue market came alive with two high-grade competitive loans and speculative-grade Guam pricing bonds to strong demand. U.S. Treasuries gave little direction and the market held steady to firmer in spots as a diverse set of deals got done

It would cost Texas little to pass a law barring banks that fail a pro-gun litmus test from underwriting bond deals in the Lone Star State, one of the measure’s sponsors claims. The bill would require companies to certify that they do not have policies discriminating against firearm or ammunition businesses to be allowed to

Municipals were quietly traded with some strength outside 10 years as investors await the larger new-issue calendar that begins with a retail order period Tuesday from Connecticut and competitive loans from West Virginia and high-grade Prince George’s County, Maryland. Municipal benchmarks were little changed, with a basis point bump on Refinitiv MMD’s scale outside 2031

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board appears poised to do away with a requirement that dealers provide disclosures to customers who may not be invested in municipals, a request industry groups have been making for years. The MSRB requested comment May 14 on potential changes to Rules G-10 on investor and municipal advisory client education and

Connecticut officials enter this week’s $1 billion general obligation bond sale armed with four upgrades in six weeks, including three within two days last week. Fitch Ratings on Friday upgraded the state’s GO rating to AA-minus. One day earlier, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and S&P Global Ratings elevated Connecticut to AA and A-plus, respectively. Moody’s