A Puerto Rico municipal bond paid by a private company will default on June 1, two rating agencies expect. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have both predicted in reports issued in the past month that AES Puerto Rico L.P. will default on its cogeneration facility revenue 2000 Series A bonds payment due June 1.
Bonds
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Monday told Wall Street that the House would advance a plan to avoid a debt default that’s conditioned on spending cuts and includes a larger budget proposal that claws back unspent pandemic funds. “The longer President Biden waits to be sensible, to find agreement, the more likely it becomes that
A barrage of bills introduced in the Texas Legislature this session that would constrain debt issuance could impede the ability of issuers to address an increasing need to fund infrastructure for the state’s growing population, according to speakers at last week’s Bond Buyer Texas Public Finance Conference. Numerous bond-related measures are among a record 8,153
S&P Global Ratings on Friday raised Massachusetts’s general obligation long-term credit rating to AA-plus from AA, and upgraded bonds backed by annual appropriations from the state. “The upgrade reflects our view that the commonwealth’s commitment to strengthen its budget management practices supported by the state’s improved reserves and a strong economy will be sustained through
Municipals were weaker ahead of a heavier new-issue calendar, while U.S. Treasury yields rose and equities ended down. Investors will be greeted Monday with a new-issue calendar estimated at $11.488 billion, one of the largest year to date. Triple-A benchmark yields were cut two to six basis points, depending on the scale, while U.S. Treasury
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he favored more monetary policy tightening to reduce persistently high inflation, although he said he was prepared to adjust his stance if needed if credit tightens more than expected. “Because financial conditions have not significantly tightened, the labor market continues to be strong and quite tight, and inflation is
Rejecting bondholders’ position that they are entitled to full recovery, District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain set procedures for estimating bondholder claims in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bankruptcy case and deadlines shorter than requested. The parties should engage in a “true estimation process, not a protracted trial to establish a precise computation of
A New York judge has ordered an affiliate to the owner of the American Dream Mall to pay $389 million to a group of junior lenders. New York Supreme Court Judge Andrew Borrock this week granted a summary judgment to a group of the mall’s private financers, who sued in February, alleging the mall failed
The ongoing effort in Congress to lift a controversial cap on the deduction that can be taken for state and local taxes began a new chapter on Friday as another bipartisan group of lawmakers began attempts to revive a bill very similar to one that failed to advance last session. Reps. Andrew Garbarino along with
A California bill that would restrict the state attorney general from imposing what the authors called “unreasonable, unworkable, and unnecessary conditions” on rural hospitals seeking to stay open by merging with, or selling to, another hospital was pulled from committee. Senate Bill 774, slated to be heard in the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday was
A coalition of nine states and two think-tanks have filed amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court to take up Ohio’s challenge to Janet Yellen and the Treasury Department’s ban on using federal pandemic aid for tax cuts. The coalition is made up of representatives from Texas, Virginia, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota,
As the New York State Legislature returns to work Monday, lawmakers face several challenges, most importantly negotiating an agreement on a state budget that’s already more than two weeks late. Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled her $227 billion executive budget proposal for fiscal 2024 in February. Budget approval is required by the start of the state’s fiscal year on April
Buy-siders digesting the departure of Nuveen’s head of municipals John Miller from the high-yield market say they’re watching the new management’s approach to some of his largest and riskiest positions, and whether his exit will ease the concentration that characterized the market under his influence. “Talk about someone who defines a brand,” a buy-side source
Municipals were steady Thursday in secondary trading as investors turned their attention to a sizable new-issue slate distracting from a weaker U.S. Treasury market. Equities rallied. Outflows from municipal bond mutual funds intensified as Refinitiv Lipper reported $255.794 million was pulled from them as of Wednesday after $91.713 million of outflows the week prior. With
California legislation designed to alter transparency laws that have had a “chilling effect” on bond measure passage cleared its first hurdle. The Senate’s Governance and Finance Committee approved Senate Bill 532 by a 5-1 vote Wednesday, the bill will now move to the Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who
The number of hospital consolidations for the first quarter still lags pre-COVID-19 pandemic first quarters but the revenue side of the equation rose to levels not seen since 2018. The first quarter saw 15 announced transactions that involve $12.4 billion of revenues, according to advisory firm Kaufman Hall’s quarterly look at not-for-profit and for-profit hospital
New York City’s economy is progressing, Upstate New York’s is sluggish and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ is struggling in a post-COVID world. Analysts with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York made these and other observations at a web conference Thursday morning on how Federal Reserve District 2’s economy has recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic
The Securities and Exchange Commission will host its Municipal Securities Disclosure Conference May 10, both in-person and virtual, where moderating staff from the Office of Municipal Securities will lead panelists through topics such as ESG, the Financial Data Transparency Act and voluntary disclosure. The conference will be attended by SEC chairman Gary Gensler, Commissioners Hester
The Southern California Public Power Authority plans to price $700 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds to fund projects that support replacing coal-fired combustion at a Utah power plant with a new natural gas and hydrogen plant nearby. Lead manager Wells Fargo will hold a retail order period Tuesday, ahead of institutional pricing on Wednesday. Cabrera
They say the third time’s a charm — and that must be true in the Garden State, where for the third time in less than a week, New Jersey received a credit rating upgraded. S&P Global Ratings on Wednesday raised its long-term and underlying ratings on the state’s general obligation bonds to A from A-minus
Chicago’s revisions to its water and wastewater credit features drew an upgrade as the city prepares a nearly $1billion sale of water and wastewater revenue bonds next month ahead of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s handover of power to Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson. S&P Global Ratings lifted the rating on the second lien for both enterprise systems to