Today In The Markets

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has approved a $48.8 million budget for the 2025 fiscal year, a 2.9% increase from the prior year and its first after the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended its FY2024 rate card and after the board conducted a couple of stakeholders meetings on its budgeting process. For FY 2025,  $15.1

The Securities and Exchange Commission has closed out its case against Matthias O’Meara and Choice Advisors, who acted as unregistered municipal advisors and were the first to be charged under MSRB Rule G-42 on the duties of non-solicitor municipal advisors, winning judgments of $312,572 for O’Meara and $187,337 for Choice. That comes after the U.S.

Investortools and ficc.ai have partnered to stream the latter’s predictive trade levels into the former’s Investortools Dealer Network. This integration gives Investortools’ clients greater “AI-driven pricing intelligence,” allowing them to make more informed decisions and have the flexibility to incorporate their preferred real-time pricing data providers, according to a press release. Through the integration, Investortool’s

The Ohio Water Development Authority was scheduled to return to market Tuesday with triple-A-rated revenue bonds, including $400 million of new money green bonds. New money proceeds will reimburse the agency for loans financing wastewater, stormwater and water pollution prevention projects. The OWDA jointly administers, with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the state’s bond-funded wastewater

In her new role as Indianapolis-based managing director at Crews & Associates, Susan Reed aims to bring both creative ideas and a deep well of experience to bear on the challenges facing Indiana issuers. Reed, who has worked as a bond attorney and a municipal advisor and has served in a community and economic development

Municipals yields fell Tuesday following the U.S. Treasury market in a flight-to-safety bid amid rising tensions in the Middle East while equities saw losses. The larger new-issue slate began pricing in earnest as the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York accelerated a $1-plus billion Northwell Health deal and several competitive loans were well

The California School Boards Association is suing the state over a Proposition 98 work-around included as a trailer bill in the budget. Proposition 98, often referenced throughout California’s state budget process, constitutionally mandates the state to allocate a certain percentage of the state budget to education each year. The 2024 Education Omnibus Budget Trailer Bill,

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Merrill Lynch $50,000 for reporting 65,335 municipal securities transactions that it shouldn’t have, part of a wider action against the banking behemoth that ended in $2 million in fines. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm agreed to the fines and a censure for violating MSRB Rules

Real technological change in the municipal bond market will be uncomfortable for the “merchants of complexity” that benefit from the current market structure. That’s the word from participants at MuniTech, a conference billed as a magnet for the “tech-forward” in public finance. “We all have to have a really hard discussion,” said Hector Negroni, a

Transcription: Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio for the authoritative record. Mike Scarchilli (00:03): Hi everyone and welcome to The Bond Buyer Podcast, your essential resource for insights into everything municipal finance. I’m Mike Scarchilli, Editor-in-Chief of The Bond

Austin will start issuing bonds in late 2025 to help finance an estimated $4 billion airport expansion program to accommodate record-breaking passenger growth, according to the airport. Last week, the Austin City Council authorized the negotiation and execution of design and construction contracts for an arrivals and departures hall at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport that will

Municipal bonds are directly or indirectly involved in a flurry of litigation in Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah triggered by defaults, bankruptcy, environmental concerns, or laws that punish financial firms for their stance on fossil fuels.  The outcomes of the lawsuits could determine if bonds can be issued, who is to blame for defaulted debt,

Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal ReserveAl Drago/Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg Inflation and unemployment are the two key data points the Federal Reserve leans on when setting monetary policy, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell flagged another potentially relevant metric: personal savings.  Powell said government measures of gross domestic income, or GDI, had been coming in

Municipals saw some weakness up front while U.S. Treasuries saw losses across the curve after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled the Fed’s rate-cutting schedule was not yet certain as the U.S. economy remains strong. Equities closed in the black. USTs saw the largest losses on the short-end, with yields rising up to 7 basis