Joe Biden bristled during a fiery appearance at the White House on Thursday night as reporters pounded him with questions about his age and mental fitness to be president. “I know what the hell I’m doing,” said Biden, who is 81. “I’m the most qualified person in this country to be president of the United
The US has been Israel’s staunchest ally since Hamas fighters attacked it on October 7. But as US secretary of state Antony Blinken ended his latest visit, it was the two countries’ deepening divisions that were most clearly on display. After a day of meetings between US and Israeli officials, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister,
Vladimir Putin on Thursday said he believed “an agreement can be reached” to free imprisoned US journalist Evan Gershkovich, suggesting he would swap him for a Russian assassin serving a life sentence in Germany. Russia’s president compared Gershkovich’s imprisonment in Moscow to “a person serving a sentence in an allied country of the US”, a
The S&P 500 stock index has touched the milestone of 5,000 for the first time, setting a fresh record high as a narrow group of companies continued to drive the benchmark upwards. The basket of blue-chip US stocks rose as high as 5,000.4 on Thursday, seconds before closing the session 0.1 per cent higher at
A US Department of Justice report on Thursday cast Joe Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” in a damaging portrayal of the president even as he was spared from criminal charges following a months-long probe. The report from special counsel Robert Hur, who oversaw the DoJ’s investigation into Biden’s handling of
Municipals were steady to a touch firmer in spots Thursday, more new-issues saw strong demand while small outflows returned to muni mutual funds. U.S. Treasuries were weaker, and equities ended up. After four weeks of inflows into muni mutual funds, outflows returned, with LSEG Lipper reporting $121.1 million of outflows for the week ending Wednesday
Ex-IFS Securities trader Keith Wakefield committed securities and wire fraud when, as the broker-dealer’s head of fixed income, the Chicago resident made forbidden speculative trades and embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars over a two-year period, an Illinois federal court jury found this week. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of
The slow rolling demise of the Highway Trust Fund combined with uncertainty about an eventual Bipartisan Infrastructure Law reauthorization has states and industry leaders exploring new funding and financing options. Sales tax charged on gasoline and diesel fuel remain the main engine powering the funding stream that states use to maintain roads, bridges, and public
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent suspension of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s rate card model is causing some confusion in the market, as the fees set for 2023 are now in effect for this year. That’s according to Mark Kim, chief executive officer at the MSRB, speaking during the Bond Buyer’s 2024 National Outlook
Jason Lisec was named head of HilltopSecurities’ fixed income capital markets. He had been co-head of the department since 2020. “Jason has a proven record as an outstanding leader who brings clarity, decisiveness and expertise to his role with our fixed income capital markets division,” said HilltopSecurities CEO Brad Winges. “He has established great partnerships
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Sir Keir Starmer has long argued his party would give businesses the certainty they need to invest in the UK. But the Labour leader’s volte-face on his green investment plan showed how hard that is, even
Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center unveiled plans Wednesday for a $5 billion pediatric health campus in Dallas that will be financed in part with bonds. The project, which is expected to be completed in six to seven years, includes an approximately 2 million-square-foot hospital with three towers that will replace the existing Children’s
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US foreign policy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Billions of dollars in US aid to Ukraine were hanging in the balance on Thursday, as several Republican lawmakers voiced fresh disapproval for a new bill that would send $60bn in additional support to
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Is there any way that a company can still be considered a bargain if its share price has risen more than five-fold in little more than a year, putting it on the verge of becoming
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. This week, a grim new record was set in the business world: fraudsters used a deepfake bot to trick an employee of a Hong Kong company into transferring $25mn. This is not the first time
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The UK is set to lag behind its peers in returning inflation to target, a Bank of England interest rate-setter has warned, as she argued for a further increase in the cost of borrowing.
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. has brought on a pair of former UBS bankers to its public finance team under new public finance chief Elizabeth Coolidge. New York-based Kristin Stephens will head the firm’s Northeast region and Atlanta-based David Moffett will head the Southeast, the firm announced Thursday. “Kristin’s past work with issuers in developing innovative
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The US Supreme Court on Thursday expressed doubts about a decision by Colorado’s highest court excluding Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot, in a high-stakes election case with consequences for the 2024 presidential race.
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Hedge funds have torn up their bets against the dollar after the US economy’s unexpected resilience sparked a rebound for the greenback in the first six weeks of the year. Citibank, one of the world’s
The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved amendments to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Rule G-12 on uniform practices, adding a section to the rule that makes dealers involved in municipal securities transactions subject to the T+1 settlement cycle, another step towards the larger industry move shortening the settlement cycle. The proposal aligns MSRB Rule G-12
Florida-based plastics recycler PureCycle Technologies announced this week that its subsidiary, PureCycle: Ohio LLC, has agreed to buy out the majority holders of $219.55 million of outstanding private activity bonds tied to its Ironton, Ohio facility, the company’s first polypropylene purification plant. The tax-exempt bonds had $219.55 million in principal outstanding at the time they