Month: January 2022

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The Federal Reserve laid the groundwork for interest rate hikes Wednesday. At the conclusion of its two-day meeting, the central bank said it will aggressively unwind last year’s bond buying after a variety of inflation reports reached their highest levels in decades. Although interest rates will stay near zero for now, Fed officials set the stage
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Municipals continued their ascent to higher yields Wednesday, even before the Federal Open Market Committee said it would “soon” raise interest rates. U.S. Treasury yields spiked following the FOMC statement and Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments. “Powell’s seeming unwillingness to dismiss some of the more-hawkish scenarios for the path of policy this year, leaving all options
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Buyers should cool off on cryptocurrency concerns and make some long-term investments instead, SkyBridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci told CNBC on Tuesday. Some people think bitcoin is “rat poison,” as billionaire investor Warren Buffett once described it; others think it’s the worst thing to ever happen to civilization, Scaramucci said in a “Squawk Box” interview. “Everyone
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One of the most pressing real estate (and social) issues today is the shortage of affordable housing. “Due to housing production lagging demand over many years, housing affordability is a growing challenge for moderate and lower income households throughout the U.S.,” observes Christopher Ptomey, Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center for Housing. Fortunately, one
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The broad nature of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s request for information on environmental, social, and governance practices in the municipal securities market is worrying some industry advocacy groups. Representatives from the National Association of Municipal Advisors, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and the National Association of Bond Lawyers discussed the issue Monday
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Mastercard reports in spite of hurdles from supply chain disruptions and a Covid-19 resurgence, retail sales were up 8.5% between November 1 and December 24, vis-à-vis the year before. But once holiday season concluded, another kind of work commenced. A robust holiday shopping season resulted in retailers being inundated with returns and exchanges. In the
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Selling pressure on the short end continued on Monday and triple-A benchmark yields were cut by as much as five basis points there while U.S. Treasuries pared back earlier gains and equities rebounded from a large selloff earlier in the day. Ratios rose with the day’s moves with the municipal to UST five-year at 64%,
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State and local governments are poised to withstand some of the Omicron-related economic damages thanks to more robust rainy day funds and billions of unspent federal aid, industry experts believe. “It’s continuing, unfortunately, and we’re in the middle of another surge right now,” said Eric Kim, senior director at Fitch Ratings, at the Volcker Alliance