Bonds

Miami International Airport leads the nation’s airports in recovering passenger traffic lost during the COVD-19 pandemic, according to a report. “We looked at the total passenger recovery levels for 10 of the largest muni market borrowers in the U.S. airport sector and found half have surpassed 2019 levels while the other half remains below pre-pandemic

Voters in Rhode Island’ will face several local ballot questions Tuesday, mostly for for local school bonds. Rhode Island is in the midst of a state-backed overhaul of its educational facilities, many of which are deemed to be outdated and in need of replacement or renovation, and local officials hoping to tap a state reimbursement

Fresh signs of a retrenchment among Wall Street firms came Friday with news that Citi CEO Jane Fraser is considering closing the firm’s muni trading and origination business, which some market sources saw as a trial balloon being floated by top executives to test reaction. The potential exit, reported by Bloomberg News, came as a

While municipal bond issuance has dropped precipitously the past two years amid volatile markets, environmental, social and governance debt has steadily grown despite issuer hesitation to designate it as such and an ever-more acrimonious political environment emerges over it. ESG issuance for the first three quarters of 2023 was at $27.970 billion, potentially on pace

States would suffer deep cuts in water infrastructure funding they receive through state revolving funds, which make up a significant corner of the municipal bond market, under a bill passed Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives. The fiscal 2024 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations measure, House Bill 4821, totals $37.4

Washington is banking on its high credit ratings and strong demand on previous sales as it heads to market Tuesday with a $483 million competitive refunding.  The bonds will be auctioned in two series: $296.550 million various purpose general obligation refunding bonds, Series R-2024A and $186.225 million motor vehicle fuel tax and vehicle-related fees GO

The notion of channeling federal dollars devoted to infrastructure improvement into affordable housing including office conversions located near mass transit is picking up steam. Quantifying the possibilities and costs offered by the concept remains elusive but recent research is revealing new possibilities.  “We end up concluding something on the order of 10% of the existing

Municipals rallied Friday across the curve sending triple-A yields lower by as much as 13 basis points as they continued to play catch up to the moves in U.S. Treasuries, which also saw more gains after a weaker jobs report further signaled Fed rate hikes may be done. Equities closed the week in the black.

Two major offshore wind projects in New Jersey got the ax as their developer, Danish energy company Ørsted, reassesses its U.S. portfolio citing sustained inflation and rising construction costs. Mads Nipper, Group President and CEO of Ørsted, on Tuesday said the company was “extremely disappointed” to cancel Ocean Wind 1 and 2, a pair of offshore wind

A Pennsylvania company that operates three nursing homes is in default, and it’s a familiar story: staff shortages and a large slump in occupancy in the aftermath of the pandemic. Senior Choice Inc. failed to make interest and principal payments due Oct. 31 on its $15.9 million bond issued in 2006 by the Cambria County

Municipals rallied hard Thursday following another day of U.S. Treasury market gains while equities closed the session up as investors contemplate the end of Fed rate hikes. Triple-A yields fell 10 to 14 basis points while UST saw gains of up to 16bps out long. These were the largest gains the muni market has seen

Quickly rising demand for energy in Georgia has left a major state power provider searching for additional sources of electricity to meet growing near-term needs, all while keeping in mind carbon-zero commitments. Just a little over a year after Georgia Power released its Integrated Resources Plan, a blueprint for meeting power demand through 2030 and

Municipals were firmer Wednesday but underperformed a U.S. Treasury rally after the Fed held rates steady. Equities rallied as well. The municipal market was up “a touch” after the Fed announced it would keep rates unchanged at their November meeting, according to Michael Pietronico, chief executive officer at Miller Tabak Asset Management. Commenting on the

Municipal bond delinquencies declined in the third quarter, despite some dramatic outliers including Mercy Hospital’s bankruptcy filing in Iowa, and some unrated affordable housing and senior living bonds, Moody’s Investors Service said. There were only three new municipal bond defaults in the third quarter, compared to nine in the second quarter, Moody’s analysts wrote. Two

Michigan-based Great Lakes Water Authority is set to return to market with upward of $400 million of a combination of senior and second lien water supply and sewer disposal revenue and refunding bonds with two ratings upgrades and after it took a step toward ending a years-long legal dispute with a city just north of

Overdue and over budget, a project to redevelop Connecticut’s New London Pier into an offshore wind energy hub for projects along the Atlantic coast is nearly complete. Its first shipments, components for a project in the Long Island Sound, are set to leave port early Tuesday. Launched in 2020 with an original price tag of

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has said he will challenge more than $5.5 billion of federal transportation grants after the U.S. Government Accountability Office agreed with him that the grant criteria should be subject to Congressional approval. The GAO on Oct. 18 issued an eight-page ruling that found that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Multimodal discretionary

Oklahoma’s Council of Bond Oversight approved up to $560 million of revenue bonds Thursday for the state’s Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA), which is expected to start issuing the debt later this year. Proceeds will finance repairs and improvements, including a natural gas-fired generating unit to replace the authority’s last remaining coal-fired unit, as well

Market data platform SOLVE has introduced a public finance workflow solution that shows historical scales for all muni deals, allowing for spread comparisons of where a deal priced in the past to where it might price in current market conditions. The firm’s clients wanted a tool to deliver deal-based spreads on their terms, said Gregg

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has approved its first fees under its new rate card model, which helps the board respond to market pressures and adjust yearly rates accordingly, and expects to file those changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission within a month’s time. Of the four fees the board collects from regulated entities,

Municipals were steady Friday ahead of an expected paltry new-issue calendar. U.S. Treasuries were firmer 10 years and in and equities were mixed after a volatile week of market-moving economic data and increasing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East while all markets await the Federal Open Market Committee’s November meeting. “Any chance of a dovish

New York City has received a boost of state support as it seeks to head off a worsening affordable housing crisis, including an increase in the bonding capacity of the New York City Housing Development Corp. Gov. Kathy Hochul this week signed into law a trio of bills passed by New York’s Legislature leveraging state

A new stream of federal funding may find its way into office conversions and other efforts designed to boost the nation’s housing supply, and public finance officers are eyeing a renewed effort to finance homebuilding with new rules on Community Development Block Grants and the freeing up of federally-owned land.  The new efforts were officially

A Louisiana congressional committee voted down plans for a $2 billion-plus public-private partnership that would replace an aging toll bridge near Lake Charles, a move that project proponents say will cost the state and provide for few alternatives. In an 8-6 vote on Tuesday, the Louisiana State Legislature’s Joint Transportation Highway and Public Works Committee

During an unexpectedly challenging year so far, following an even more volatile one in 2022, predicting 2024 may seem daunting amid current market conditions. Despite that, as an industry it’s important to connect and get a sense of where others see various factors impacting the public finance community, from interest rates to ESG. We would

Volatility continues as municipals were slightly weaker in spots Wednesday but outperformed U.S. Treasuries, which saw the greatest losses out long. Equities ended down. Munis were cut up to three basis points, depending on the scale, while UST yields rose up to as much as 14 basis points in 30 years. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio

Municipal interest rates will climb higher by yearend, market volatility will be the biggest challenge facing the industry heading into 2024 and issuance is likely to remain stagnant next year.  That’s according to respondents to The Bond Buyer’s Live Market Survey at the California Public Finance conference last week. The survey, sponsored by Fitch Ratings,

Municipals were slightly firmer Tuesday as large deals priced in the primary saw yields lowered upon repricing. U.S. Treasuries were firmer out long and equities rallied. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio Tuesday was at 71%, the three-year was at 72%, the five-year at 72%, the 10-year at 74% and the 30-year at 91%, according to Refinitiv

The Chicago Board of Education plans to bring its general obligation bond credit to the market this week for the first time since the Federal Reserve began pushing up interest rates. The $600 million of GO bonds are secured by the full faith and credit and taxing power of the Chicago Board of Education, but

New Jersey’s tax revenues have continued to slide in the new fiscal year, according to recently published figures. The state pulled in $4.8 billion in taxes in September, New Jersey’s Department of the Treasury said in its monthly revenue report, a year-over-year decline of 5.1% for the month and drop of 6.2% for the first