The first quarter of the year saw the highest number of new municipal bond impairments since the Great Recession, according to Municipal Market Analytics, Inc. There were 47 new impairments eclipsing the previous post-Great Recession peak of 44 in 2019, the firm said in its Default Trends report released Wednesday. The first quarter’s impairments “continue
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. US employers added 303,000 jobs in March, as a buoyant labour market damped expectations of imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts and boosted president Joe Biden’s re-election bid. The figures released on Friday by the US
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Fugitive Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek used compromised intelligence officials in Vienna to spy on European citizens and plot break-ins and assassinations by elite Russian hit squads. He also obtained a Nato government’s cutting-edge cryptography machine
Chicago priced $229.265 million of second lien wastewater transmission revenue bonds Thursday in a refunding deal that saw spreads tighten from the last time the issuer was in the market. This is the second wastewater deal since the city saw an upgrade in April 2023 when S&P Global Ratings raised the second lien for both
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The Rolex Datejust, a self-winding luxury watch that displays the date through its Cyclops magnifying lens, was launched in 1945 and is one of the Swiss company’s iconic models. It has become an emblem of
Rising interest rates have already slowed growth in a workforce housing bond program in California, and now efforts by some county assessors to levy possessory interest taxes on the property administrators are having a chilling effect. So far, only Orange and San Diego counties have followed through, while others are contemplating doing so. The program
It was an unlikely step for Cat Earp to leave her job at Gucci and her home in London to move into her husband’s family farmhouse in Devon, miles from a train station, and accessible only with stout boots rather than double G-branded loafers. “Running a farm wasn’t really part of my life plan,” she admits.
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Thames Water’s parent company has sent a formal notice to bondholders informing them that it has defaulted on its debt, firing the starting gun on a potentially messy restructuring at the owner of Britain’s largest
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Israel’s military said on Friday that its soldiers had made errors and violated its operating procedures in their strike on a humanitarian convoy this week that killed seven aid workers. The deaths of the workers
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The Biden administration is drawing up plans to require goods produced in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank to be clearly labelled as coming from there, according to US officials, another sign of White
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK house prices myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. UK house prices fell 1 per cent in March from February, marking their first fall after five consecutive monthly rises and surprising economists who had expected a slight increase. Mortgage lender Halifax, which compiled
Hedge funds are pouncing on the UK’s £200bn investment trust sector as it is shunned by investors and hit by competition from cheaper rivals. Investment trusts, a cornerstone of UK equity markets with roots stretching back more than a century, have seen a gap open up between their share prices and the value of the
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The boss of one of the City’s biggest independent investment banks has sounded the alarm over the future of London’s capital markets, saying they will end up “dead” on current trends. Peel Hunt chief executive
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The writer is the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa Since the advent of democracy in South Africa three decades ago, our mutually beneficial economic relations with the United States have surpassed
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The question of how to squash government debt is about as fresh as a pickled turnip. And given rising interest rates and feeble growth, the answers are about as sour. But a new working paper
Joe Lewis, the British billionaire whose family owns Tottenham Hotspur football club, will avoid being sent to prison for insider trading, after a federal judge in Manhattan agreed on Thursday to sentence the 87-year-old to a $5mn fine and three years of probation. Lewis pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January, following an investigation in
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Oil myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The global benchmark oil price has topped $90 a barrel for the first time since October as flaring tensions in the Middle East exacerbate an already-tight market. Brent crude oil futures rose 1.5 per cent on
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Joe Lewis, the British billionaire whose family owns Tottenham Hotspur football club, will avoid being sent to prison for insider trading, after a federal judge in Manhattan agreed on Thursday to sentence the 87-year-old to
Fitch Ratings’ new U.S. local government rating criteria is expected to lead to changes to about 550 ratings in the next six months. Fitch adopted the new criteria — which will affect cities, counties, school districts, and special districts — after working on the revision since the fall. The criteria will also be used to
Municipals were little changed Thursday as the primary market saw several large deals price to good demand as investors see current muni yields more enticing after the rise in triple-A curves Tuesday and Wednesday. U.S. Treasuries were slightly firmer and equities were down near the close. There has been some trepidation from buyers over the
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Joe Biden has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that US support for Israel’s war in Gaza depended on its efforts to address the humanitarian suffering in the enclave, as he called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the