There should be less concern over interest rates and inflation and more optimism over credit quality and returns in the second half of 2023, municipal experts said. While investors will still keep inflation and the Federal Reserve Board’s policy decisions on their radar screens, overall market technicals are expected to appeal to investors before year end,
Bonds
A bigger basketball arena is being pushed by Oklahoma City’s mayor, who wants to put a plan that would include public and team funding before voters this year. Mayor David Holt spent most of his state of the city address last week laying out his case for replacing the city-owned Paycom Center, contending “no tax
Kentucky’s economy remains in overdrive as it continues to rack up record after record. This month the state saw the largest surplus in its history as the general fund budget had a $1.55 billion overage at the end of fiscal 2023. Nearly all of the surplus will go into the commonwealth’s rainy-day fund, bringing it
Municipals were little changed in secondary trading Tuesday as the focus was on the primary where the state of Washington sold large general obligation bond deals ahead of the FOMC rates decision. Treasury yields rose a basis point or two throughout most of the curve and equities ended the session in the black. The two-year
A collection of muni market affinity groups are hosting their second annual summer mixer in August on the rooftop of Nixon Peabody’s downtown Los Angeles office. The event will be held Aug. 10 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Last summer’s inaugural event drew just north of 100 people, and they are hoping for a
Yvette Shields, a reporter originally trained to cover Chicago City Hall, turned her fearless pen to Midwest state and local finance when she joined the Bond Buyer nearly 26 years ago and launched a career that enriched the public finance industry with unrivaled coverage of the people, deals and events that matter to the bond
On July 1, Florida’s new anti-boycott law, House Bill 3, “An Act Relating to Government and Corporate Activism,” went into effect. Like similar laws enacted in other states, HB-3 generally bans companies like commercial banks and investment banks from doing business in the state if such companies are perceived as boycotting or otherwise discriminating against
The National Federation of Municipal Analysts has released best practices on Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, its first on the subject, which provides a roadmap for state and local governments as these investments become more essential to improving the infrastructure and quality of life around the country. “SRFs were selected because they
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
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