Today In The Markets

California’s controversial high-speed rail project cleared a major milestone Thursday when the authority overseeing the project approved final environmental clearance for the final, and possibly the most challenging, segment of the route. The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s approval of a Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement during a two-day meeting last week marked the last

Reinvestment demand will remain strong in July, as large redemptions will support technicals and lead to positive returns. June saw $42.4 billion of redemptions, the highest redemption figure since August 2023, helped the muni market as new-issue buying last month was “pretty strong,” said Pat Luby, head of municipal strategy at CreditSights. Net supply for

When the west abutment on Minnesota’s Rapidan Dam partially failed last week, officials initially feared a total collapse.  The dam did not collapse, but storms caused water to overflow it, debris to clog parts of it and the flood flows to ultimately generate so much erosion that waters ultimately went around the dam. For days,

The Richmond, California-based West Contra Costa Unified School District, which failed to approve an accountability plan necessary to pass a budget by the end of the fiscal year, got a reprieve Monday as Contra Costa County prepared to take over budget activities. If the school district fails to approve a budget by the July 1

Municipals were steady Tuesday as U.S. Treasury yields fell and equities ended higher. The muni market will see few deals this week as issuers usually “take a breather” on coming to market during holiday-shortened weeks, noted senior vice president and director of strategic planning and fixed income research at SWBC Chris Brigati. Along with the

Miami-Dade County, Florida, was upgraded to AA-plus from AA by Fitch Ratings, which attributed the change to its new local government ratings criteria. The outlook is stable. Fitch cited the county’s “expected resilience to cyclical and noncyclical economic stressors due to its position as the primary anchor of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach [metropolitan statistical area],

Another $289 million in Airport Infrastructure Grants is flowing to 129 airports across 40 states as air travel in the US breaks new records. “This latest round of funding will support key improvements to terminals, runways, and baggage systems and build on the work this administration is doing to modernize our aviation infrastructure,” said Transportation Secretary

Davis Polk has hired infrastructure finance lawyer Elena Millerman to join the firm in New York as a co-leader as it builds out its infrastructure practice. Millerman joins as partner and co-head of the infrastructure finance group. She was previously at White & Case LLP, where most recently she served as the global head of

Fitch Ratings gave Children’s Health System of Texas a negative outlook on its AA rating, citing financial pressure from a plan to build a partly bond-financed $5 billion pediatric health campus in Dallas. Fitch noted the project will be funded by Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center and will be “supported by philanthropy and