Bonds

A California Bay Area school district that recently made waves for failing to pass a budget on time sold $352 million of general obligation bonds last week. The district entered the market with a downgrade to its underlying rating, but the deal was bolstered with a bond insurance wrap that covered most maturities. West Contra

Shreveport, Louisiana, was downgraded by Moody’s Ratings.Adobe Stock Shreveport, Louisiana, was downgraded to Baa2 from Baa1 Wednesday by Moody’s Ratings. The agency maintains a negative outlook on the rating. The downgrade of Shreveport’s issuer, general obligation and senior revenue ratings will affect $2.1 billion in debt when the city completes the anticipated $88 million Series

Municipals saw gains Thursday, ending four consecutive trading sessions of rising yields. U.S. Treasuries improved and equities ended mixed. Municipal yields fell up to seven basis points, depending on the scale, while UST yields fell one to five basis points. Muni-UST ratios fell slightly. The two-year ratio Thursday was at 66%, the three-year at 65%,

Houston Controller Chris Hollins’ investor conference took place Tuesday without the  participation of key city officials after Mayor John Whitmore raised “pay-to-play” concerns about corporate sponsorships for the event and requested a city probe. Hollins countered on Tuesday, calling on the Houston inspector general’s office to also investigate corporate sponsorships for the mayor’s Sept. 17

Municipals saw a sharp correction Wednesday, with yields rising double-digits as the asset class played catch up to U.S. Treasuries after recent outperformance led to too-rich ratios. Deals in the primary repriced to higher yields as a result. Muni yields rose five to 18 basis points, depending on the scale, pushing the 10-year above 3%

Municipals extended their selloff with the largest losses on the short end amid another busy day in the primary market, led by an upsized JFK Airport Terminal 6 Redevelopment Project deal. U.S. Treasuries were little changed and equities ended mixed. Triple-A yields rose three to 12 basis points, playing some catch up after recent outperformance.

As the election looms, tax specialists and politicos are gaming out what might happen to key provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including the deduction cap on state and local taxes.   “There’s an interesting set of bedfellows and partnerships that could emerge on SALT,” said Arshi Siddiqui, a partner at Akin, and a

Municipals were weaker Monday following U.S. Treasury market pressures while equities ended down. Triple-A yields rose up to seven basis points while govies were higher by eight to 12 basis points. Short ratios fell as a result of the day’s moves. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio Monday day was at 61%, the three-year at 61%, the

On Monday, the Department of Transportation announced the winners of $4.2 billion in grants flowing from the Biden Administration’s infrastructure legislative crown jewel.  “Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Biden-Harris administration is carrying out ambitious, complex transportation projects that will shape our country’s infrastructure for generations to come,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.  “With

Municipals were little changed Friday ahead of another robust new-issue week while U.S. Treasuries made some gains and equities closed in the black. “Strong September employment numbers and a somewhat higher CPI reading continued to reverberate through the bond market,” said BofA Global Research strategists Yingchen Li and Ian Rogow in a weekly report. “This,

Hyman Grossman, former head of public finance at S&P and longtime industry veteran known for expanding S&P’s public finance analytics team from its early days into the giant it now is, as well as great friend, family man and mentor to many, has passed away at the age of 89. “He was an analyst covering

Broward County, Florida’s Tourism Development Tax, sales tax, and Professional Sports Facilities tax and revenue refunding bonds were upgraded by Moody’s Ratings, affecting about $628 million in bonds. Moody’s upgraded the county’s TDT revenue bonds, Series 2021 (Convention Center Expansion Project) to Aa2 from Aa3; sales tax bonds, Series 2020, to Aaa from Aa1; and

The public private partnership that took over Puerto Rico toll roads out of the territory’s bankruptcy is gearing up to sell municipal debt for the enterprise. The Wisconsin-based Public Finance Authority will be pricing the $286.2 million in senior revenue bonds on behalf of Puerto Rico Tollroads, LLC. Barclays is an underwriter. Fitch Ratings rates

Houston Mayor John Whitmire took aim Thursday at city Controller Chris Hollins for soliciting sponsorships from municipal bond firms for an upcoming investor conference, saying it smacks of pay-to-play and calling for an investigation. The mayor said he received calls from bond underwriting firms about sponsorships for Tuesday’s event with price tags ranging from $10,000

As funding from the American Rescue Plan Act peters out, cites are balancing reserves and issuing new debt while searching for funding streams.  “Our biggest challenge is not the replacement of the ARPA funds, it’s rather how are we going to pay for the future debt, for the amount of infrastructure debt we have facing

A stalwart municipal market veteran, devoted friend, and beloved husband and father, George C. Mulry III, a managing director in public finance marketing at Assured Guaranty, died on Oct. 9. He was 64 years old. Mulry is remembered for the lives he touched and his unimpeachable work ethic. He spent nearly 40 years in the

Transcription: Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio for the authoritative record.  Mike Scarchilli (00:04): Hi everyone and welcome to The Bond Buyer Podcast, your essential resource for insights into everything municipal finance. I’m Mike Scarchilli, Editor-in-Chief of The Bond

Municipals were firmer Wednesday as muni mutual funds saw inflows top $2 billion and Pennsylvania led the new-issue calendar with $1.6 million of general obligation bonds in three series. U.S. Treasury yields fell slightly and equities ended up. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio Wednesday was at 63%, the three-year at 62%, the five-year at 64%, the

California federal and state lawmakers broke ground for a 750-acre project to restore the Salton Sea that received $250 million from the federal Inflation Reduction Act. The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly salt lake in Riverside and Imperial counties in southern California near the Mexican border. Funding for a series of projects, including

Florida continues to work to reduce its debt load, offering a tender to holders of $1.4 billion of bonds, nearly 10% of its par outstanding, using its own cash without the sale of refunding bonds. Issuers have turned to tenders since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the tax-exempt advanced refunding option.