Geopolitical turmoil roiled markets Friday, sending investors on a flight-to-safety trade into U.S. Treasuries while equities sold off after news reports that Israel was bracing for an attack by Iran on government targets and that China was providing Russia with drone and missile components. Municipal bonds followed USTs as yields fell in both asset classes
Month: April 2024
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Thames Water shareholders backed away from supporting the group after the UK regulator demanded they slash the company’s debt pile and make other structural changes they calculated would cost as much as £8bn. The backtracking
In this article LEVI BOOT Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Beyonce leaves the Luar fashion show at 154 Scott in Brooklyn during New York Fashion Week on February 13, 2024 in New York City. James Devaney | GC Images | Getty Images Western boots have a new protector in Beyoncé. The country fashion staple’s
This aerial picture shows homes near the Chesapeake Bay in Centreville, Maryland, on March 4, 2024. Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images Overall mortgage demand has now moved sideways for three straight weeks, but last week saw a split between those looking to buy a home and those hoping to save money with a
The City of Richmond, Virginia is changing course on a nearly $280 million bond issuance that will build a new minor league baseball stadium anchoring a $2.4 billion mixed-use project on 67-acres just northwest of downtown Richmond. Last week the Diamond District project, which includes retail, housing, and office space took a public financing turn when the
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK economy grew for the second month in a row in February, driven by expansion in manufacturing, raising hopes the UK may be emerging from a technical recession. Gross domestic product rose 0.1 per
Municipals were mixed Thursday in secondary trading as focus shifted to California’s nearly $1.5 billion of tax-exempt and taxable general obligation bond deals in the competitive market while U.S. Treasuries were weaker out long after Wednesday’s short-end selloff and equities were in the black at the close. Triple-A yield curves saw a mix of bumps
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Rishi Sunak’s hopes of going into a general election on the back of lower taxes and cheaper mortgages suffered a blow on Thursday as traders scaled back expectations of interest rate cuts in 2024.
Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan (C) looks on at a court in Ho Chi Minh city on April 11, 2024. A top Vietnamese property tycoon could face the death penalty when she and dozens of other co-accused face verdicts on April 11 in one of the country’s biggest fraud cases over the embezzlement of
S&P Global Ratings lowered Dunkirk, New York’s general obligation bonds by three notches to BBB-minus from A-minus and withdrew the rating. S&P removed the rating from negative CreditWatch where it had been placed on March 4. The outlook on the credit is negative. The GOs had been secured by the city’s faith-and-credit pledge. “We lowered
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Cuts in UK interest rates “should still be a way off”, according to one Bank of England policymaker, arguing investors were underestimating the risk that high inflation would linger for longer in Britain than
S&P Global Ratings on Wednesday upgraded its long-term rating on Detroit’s unlimited-tax general obligation debt to investment grade, raising it to BBB from BB-plus. The outlook is stable. The rating agency said the change reflected a stronger financial position and its “increased confidence in the city’s ability to sustain balance within the construct of its
US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attends a “Fed Listens” event in Washington, DC, on October 4, 2019. Eric Baradat | AFP | Getty Images A hotter-than-expected consumer price index reading rattled markets Wednesday, but markets are buzzing about an even more specific prices gauge contained within the data — the so-called supercore inflation reading.
Inflation has started to show signs of easing from the multi-decade highs reached in many countries following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The latest figures for most of the world’s largest economies still make for worrying reading, with price pressures remaining high as the war in Ukraine continues to keep energy and food prices elevated.
Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images It’s unclear when the Federal Reserve could begin cutting interest rates, but many homeowners who took out a mortgage in recent years — as rates hovered between 6% and 7%, and even touched 8% — are paying attention for opportunities to refinance. Thanks to those high mortgage interest rates,
Two San Francisco public finance attorneys, who worked on one of healthcare’s largest public finance deals at their previous firm, have been hired by Chapman and Cutler LLP. Mary Kimura joined the law firm on March 28 as a partner, while Michele Dulik, started Monday as senior counsel. Both will work in the firm’s San
Big investors are selling US Treasuries and buying European government bonds, betting that cooler inflation in Europe will allow its central bank to start cutting interest rates sooner than the Federal Reserve. Money managers at Pimco, JPMorgan Asset Management and T Rowe Price have all increased their exposure to European government debt in recent weeks.
Munis were a touch firmer in spots Tuesday as the primary market ramped up and investors awaited Wednesday’s inflation report to give further guidance on Fed rate cuts. U.S. Treasuries were firmer and equities were mixed at the close. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio Tuesday was at 65%, the three-year at 64%, the five-year at 61%,
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. OpenAI and Meta are on the brink of releasing new artificial intelligence models that they say will be capable of reasoning and planning, key steps towards achieving superhuman cognition in machines. This week, executives at
In this article RDFN Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Comstock Images | Stockbyte | Getty Images It’s not unusual for new homeowners to face financial surprises, but people buying a newly built home may be more likely to encounter sticker shock on a key expense. Almost 75% of recent homebuyers had regrets about their
Bond parties who oppose the proposed Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority plan of adjustment are trying to bar a key document from Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority, which could greatly undermine FAFAA’s influence in the bankruptcy’s final phase. Non-consenting bondholders said FAFAA didn’t file a pre-plan of adjustment hearing findings of fact
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Labour will on Tuesday propose to toughen a planned crackdown on tax perks enjoyed by “non-doms” living in the UK, alongside a wider effort to tighten compliance, as the party seeks to plug a hole
Municipals were steady to slightly weaker in spots Monday ahead of a rebound in issuance that tops $8.5 billion. U.S. Treasuries were weaker and equities were up. Triple-A yield curves saw yields rise up to three basis points, depending on the scale, further softening ahead of a growing new-issue slate and the last week before
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The US, UK and Australia on Monday said they were considering working with Japan on advanced technology projects in the trilateral Aukus security pact aimed at boosting deterrence against China. The Aukus defence ministers said
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed the city’s largest property tax historically: an eight-year, $1.35 billion levy to pay for bridge, street and sidewalk projects. The Transportation Levy Proposal would replace and extend the $930 million nine-year Move Seattle levy, approved by voters in 2015, which expires this year. The current levy provides roughly 30% of
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The US has warned of “significant consequences” if Chinese companies provide support for Moscow’s war against Ukraine in one of the sharpest messages it has yet delivered to Beijing. Following discussions in Guangzhou on
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
In this article SLB WMT OMF Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT A Walmart Supercenter cart sits outside of the store on February 20, 2024, in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images When markets get rocky, dividend-paying stocks can give investors’ portfolios the cushioning they need to ride out volatile times. Finding the
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. President Joe Biden will warn China about its increasingly aggressive activity in the South China Sea this week during summits with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Two senior US
The Department of Transportation and Baltimore County have reached an agreement to divert a previously awarded DOT grant to help nearby ports accommodate more cargo following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. That comes along with the announcement Thursday that DOT’s Federal Transit Administration will allocate $20.5 billion to state and local government