Alaska received what state officials called its highest rating since 2018 when Kroll Bond Rating Agency assigned its AA to the state’s general obligation bonds in its inaugural rating of the state. Kroll also assigned a stable outlook to the GOs and its AA-minus rating and stable outlook to the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority’s
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Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors. Transcription: Chip Barnett (00:03):Hi, and welcome to another Bond Buyer podcast. I’m Chip Barnett and my guest today is Eric Merlis, managing director and co-head of global markets at Citizens Bank. And we’re going to be focusing on the economy, financial markets
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s executive board last week approved a $15.7 billion capital plan for 2023 to 2028. Approximately 60% of capital spending called for is “focused on improving the reliability and resiliency” of the existing infrastructure, MassDOT chief Gina Fiandaca wrote in an introduction to the plan, with an additional 23% going towards
Municipals were relatively steady throughout most of the curve Monday, while U.S. Treasuries were weaker and equities ended the session up. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio Monday was at 58%, the three-year at 60%, the five-year at 61%, the 10-year at 65% and the 30-year at 88%, according to Refinitiv MMD’s 3 p.m. read. ICE Data
California State Treasurer Fiona Ma has hired two more deputy state treasurers to fill out her senior leadership team. Stephanie Tom and Khaim Morton were named deputy state treasurers, joining Patrick Henning, chief deputy state treasurer and Juan Fernandez, deputy treasurer for public finance. Ma was reelected in November. Several executives decided not to continue
Abundant oil and natural gas-related taxes continue to flow into the coffers of Southwest states, which are positioned to weather volatile energy prices amid slower growth in overall tax revenue. Fitch Ratings in a recent report said it doesn’t expect any negative rating implications for energy producing states directly resulting from short-term declines in oil
Miami-Dade County, Florida, is selling almost $178 million of new money bonds this week to finance a variety of projects and initiatives around the county. Going up for competitive bid on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m., ET, will be $177.66 million of Series 2023 capital asset acquisition obligation bonds. “The Aa2 issuer rating reflects the county’s
While it’s clear the Fed will raise the fed funds rate target by 25 basis points to a range between 5.25% and 5.50%, there’s less clarity about whether this will end the hiking cycle. The Federal Open Market Committee meets Tuesday and Wednesday. In its latest Summary of Economic Projections, most FOMC members saw rates
The bond market was quiet to end the week, with munis and U.S. Treasuries little changed ahead of next week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Equities were up near the close. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio Friday was at 59%, the three-year at 61%, the five-year at 62%, the 10-year at 65% and the 30-year at
Parties in a bankruptcy case involving a bond-financed Arizona participant sports venue objected to a motion to either appoint an independent Chapter 11 trustee or dismiss the case, arguing either move would be detrimental or premature. Legacy Cares, the venue’s owner, which filed for bankruptcy May 1 in Arizona federal court, along with bond trustee
State departments of transportation are breathing a sigh of relief after the Federal Highway Administration resolved the bulk of a nearly 20-year-old accounting glitch that threatened $3.5 billion of infrastructure funds. The resolution of $2.5 billion of the $3.5 billion discrepancy between two accounting systems used by the federal government frees up the money for
New Jersey sued the federal government to block a plan to charge drivers entering midtown Manhattan, claiming the green light the US gave New York’s congestion pricing proposal was ill-considered and missed numerous risks to Garden State residents. The challenge came Friday morning in a federal lawsuit the state filed against the US Department of Transportation and
The House overwhelmingly passed a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration for the next five years and granting $4 billion per fiscal year to the Airport Improvement Project. The bill, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, was passed in a 351-69 bipartisan vote, and will now move on to the Senate
BondWave LLC’s portfolio analytics suite, Effi, has introduced a new feature, Rules, where users can filter attributes of bonds in their portfolios. Michael Ruvo, BondWave’s CEO, described Rules as an “overlay” to each portfolio, where users can apply criteria including 20 different portfolio constraints and almost 20 different objectives. Through Rules, users can filter for
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s preliminary financial plan predicts the agency will have balanced budgets through 2027. With the additional aid provided in the state’ fiscal 2024 state budget, the MTA now projects a balanced budget through 2027, the first time in more than 20 years it has forecast a balanced budget for five
The untimely death of Yvette Shields has left an irreparable void in the municipal bond business. This void may never be closed because it represents a deep pain in our collective hearts. Many of us for years have toiled away in this great industry to build communities. There have been challenges along the way such
New Jersey Transit’s newly passed fiscal 2024 budget includes no new fare hikes and increased spending year-over-year, in the face of a looming fiscal cliff. NJ Transit’s board passed a $2.86 billion operating budget on Wednesday that’s 4.1% bigger than fiscal 2023’s, with 60% of costs associated with labor and fringe benefits and 31% linked
Munis were slightly weaker in spots, but triple-A yield curves largely ignored U.S. Treasury losses following the release of economic data that saw initial jobless claims fall below expectations. Equities ended mixed. Municipal bond mutual fund saw inflows return with Refinitiv Lipper on Thursday reporting investors added $1.040 billion to funds for the week ending
MarketAxess has expanded the integration of its municipal bond products with software firm Investortools’ platform to display them through the Investortools Dealer Network. This collaboration is the next stage of FIX connection integration and will bring together Investortools’ portfolio of analytics and trading tools with MarketAxess’ trading capabilities and CUSIP services for a wide-ranging picture
Fifth Third Securities has been added to the growing list of underwriters charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating its limited offering exemption. For its role in in issuing 79 offerings without obtaining the required disclosures, Fifth Third, without admitting or denying the findings, has agreed to settle the charges, cease and desist
The Sacramento County Department of Airports launched efforts to completely reimagine the airport earlier this year — and is now working out the details on how it will finance the project. To limit the amount of debt the airport would need to issue through long-term revenue bonds, airport leaders are working creatively to construct a