Bonds

When the west abutment on Minnesota’s Rapidan Dam partially failed last week, officials initially feared a total collapse.  The dam did not collapse, but storms caused water to overflow it, debris to clog parts of it and the flood flows to ultimately generate so much erosion that waters ultimately went around the dam. For days,

Reinvestment demand will remain strong in July, as large redemptions will support technicals and lead to positive returns. June saw $42.4 billion of redemptions, the highest redemption figure since August 2023, helped the muni market as new-issue buying last month was “pretty strong,” said Pat Luby, head of municipal strategy at CreditSights. Net supply for

California’s controversial high-speed rail project cleared a major milestone Thursday when the authority overseeing the project approved final environmental clearance for the final, and possibly the most challenging, segment of the route. The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s approval of a Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement during a two-day meeting last week marked the last

Municipals were a tad firmer ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, as U.S. Treasury yields fell and equities ended mixed. The Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes released after the early market close signaled the Fed is in no hurry to cut rates. FOMC members saw inflation “diminishing” but still needed more evidence it

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board’s proposed Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority plan of adjustment can be approved in its current form despite a recent appeals court ruling undermining the assumptions that underlies it, said board Executive Director Robert Mujica Jr. “We believe that the current plan that we have is confirmable as it is and

Michigan’s $82.5 billion fiscal 2025 budget — which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign — includes investments in roads and bridges financed by the $700 million final tranche of Rebuilding Michigan Plan bonds, which will be issued later this year. According to a press release from the governor’s office, projects funded by the bonds

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors. With the need for more high-speed rail lines in the United States, all eyes have been on the privately owned Brightline rail system, with one route already operating in Florida and the development of the Western route recently taking shape with a

Municipals were slightly weaker Monday but outperformed U.S. Treasuries, which saw larger losses 10 years and out, while equities ended up. Triple-A yields rose one to five basis points, depending on the curve, while UST yields rose up to 14. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio Monday was at 65%, the three-year at 65%, the five-year at

Davis Polk has hired infrastructure finance lawyer Elena Millerman to join the firm in New York as a co-leader as it builds out its infrastructure practice. Millerman joins as partner and co-head of the infrastructure finance group. She was previously at White & Case LLP, where most recently she served as the global head of

States continue to chip away at income taxes by lowering rates or adopting tax credits, with Arkansas and Kansas enacting reductions last month that will reduce collections by hundreds of millions of dollars in fiscal 2025. But the overall trend of large tax cuts, which reached a peak in 2022, has slowed considerably, according to

Another $289 million in Airport Infrastructure Grants is flowing to 129 airports across 40 states as air travel in the US breaks new records. “This latest round of funding will support key improvements to terminals, runways, and baggage systems and build on the work this administration is doing to modernize our aviation infrastructure,” said Transportation Secretary

Fitch Ratings gave Children’s Health System of Texas a negative outlook on its AA rating, citing financial pressure from a plan to build a partly bond-financed $5 billion pediatric health campus in Dallas. Fitch noted the project will be funded by Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center and will be “supported by philanthropy and

Municipals were steady Tuesday as U.S. Treasury yields fell and equities ended higher. The muni market will see few deals this week as issuers usually “take a breather” on coming to market during holiday-shortened weeks, noted senior vice president and director of strategic planning and fixed income research at SWBC Chris Brigati. Along with the

Miami-Dade County, Florida, was upgraded to AA-plus from AA by Fitch Ratings, which attributed the change to its new local government ratings criteria. The outlook is stable. Fitch cited the county’s “expected resilience to cyclical and noncyclical economic stressors due to its position as the primary anchor of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach [metropolitan statistical area],

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Monday the addition of the Tradeweb AAA Municipal Curve to its Electronic Municipal Market Access website, the latest step in the board’s years-long effort to centralize more such data on EMMA. MSRB’s John Bagley hailed the new addition to EMMA. The curve is now another of several available on

Los Angeles is the latest issuer to come to market riding a Fitch Ratings upgrade from its revised local government criteria as the city prepares to sell social bonds competitively to support its efforts to eradicate homelessness. Fitch upgraded the city’s issuer default rating to AA-plus from AA and assigned a AAA rating to the

Municipals were steady to slightly weaker in spots as U.S. Treasury yields rose and equities ended up. Despite some slight weakness Monday, munis continued “their impressive start to June,” with yields falling 10 to 13 basis points last week, Birch Creek strategists said. Munis have rallied roughly 24 to 29 basis points month-to-date, a “complete

The Arizona Legislature wrapped up its session Saturday, passing legislation to mitigate the impact of a $329 million property tax refund to be paid by Maricopa County governments and school districts, as well as a fiscal 2025 budget that tackles a two-year deficit. The refunds resulted from a stipulated judgment issued in February for class-action

Columbus, Ohio, recently embarked on a technological modernization push that employs artificial intelligence in its payroll, revenue and accounting and operations systems. Columbus Auditor Megan Kilgore said her office now uses AI for everything from reconciling differences between sets of data to visualizing city finances for the mayor or City Council members with almost real-time

The credit quality of issuers that do not disclose climate-related vulnerabilities, or their plans to address such risks, should be examined more closely by investors and considered riskier long-term investments than their public ratings may imply. Given the “constant, widespread reporting of climate change perils, and the current abundance of free, public data,” bondholders can