Bonds

The House overwhelmingly passed a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration for the next five years and granting $4 billion per fiscal year to the Airport Improvement Project. The bill, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, was passed in a 351-69 bipartisan vote, and will now move on to the Senate

BondWave LLC’s portfolio analytics suite, Effi, has introduced a new feature, Rules, where users can filter attributes of bonds in their portfolios.  Michael Ruvo, BondWave’s CEO, described Rules as an “overlay” to each portfolio, where users can apply criteria including 20 different portfolio constraints and almost 20 different objectives.  Through Rules, users can filter for

New Jersey Transit’s newly passed fiscal 2024 budget includes no new fare hikes and increased spending year-over-year, in the face of a looming fiscal cliff. NJ Transit’s board passed a $2.86 billion operating budget on Wednesday that’s 4.1% bigger than fiscal 2023’s, with 60% of costs associated with labor and fringe benefits and 31% linked

MarketAxess has expanded the integration of its municipal bond products with software firm Investortools’ platform to display them through the Investortools Dealer Network. This collaboration is the next stage of FIX connection integration and will bring together Investortools’ portfolio of analytics and trading tools with MarketAxess’ trading capabilities and CUSIP services for a wide-ranging picture

Munis continued to show strength Wednesday as several large new issues priced to good demand, with New York City Transitional Finance Authority seeing yields fall as much as of 14 basis points from Tuesday’s retail scales and Salt Lake City upsizing its deal. U.S. Treasuries improved and equities ended in the black. Triple-A yields were

Oklahoma’s attorney general is pursuing potential legal action against parties that may have illegally profited off of huge demand for electricity and natural gas during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, which led to nearly $2.9 billion of bonds being sold last year to cover extraordinary costs incurred by four utility companies.  AG Gentner Drummond announced Tuesday

Municipals continued to improve Tuesday in constructive secondary trading while a retail pricing of $950 million for the New York City Transitional Finance Authority took focus in the primary. U.S. Treasuries were slightly firmer out long and equities rallied. Triple-A yields fell up to four basis points, depending on the curve, while U.S. Treasuries were

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson Friday signed into law a 2% municipal sales tax rate, marking the end of a long-fought battle to shore up the city’s ailing finances, which have been hit by rising pension costs. “We’ve accomplished something huge, something major, something extraordinary for our city,” Johnson, surrounded by local and state officials in

Municipals were slightly firmer to start off the week as a larger new-issue calendar looms, while U.S. Treasury yields fell and equities ended the session up. Triple-A yields fell one to two basis points while UST fell two to three. Munis started off last week at “extremely rich valuations throughout most of the curve after

A group of Wall Street banks are set to avoid a long-awaited trial in Illinois over charges of inflating interest rates on the state’s variable-rate debt after a Cook County judge Monday granted the banks’ motion to vacate the trial in light of a proposed settlement with the state. The deal may not be done

The Indiana Finance Authority will head into the market as soon as Tuesday with Indianapolis-based water and wastewater utility refundings using a tender and forward delivery structure popular in the current market to achieve savings. The Indiana Finance Authority serves as conduit the CWA Authority Inc. in an offering of an $80.7 million first-lien wastewater

Municipals were slightly firmer in spots Friday while U.S. Treasuries saw losses, snapping a two-day rally, following stronger-than-estimated consumer sentiment data. Equities were mixed. Municipals largely ignored the moves in Treasuries after underperforming the rally throughout the week. Some of the outperformance municipals have shown over the past few weeks is due to a dearth

UBS Financial Services has been granted preliminary approval to settle a class action lawsuit against it with bondholders for $2.5 million. The settlement stems from charges that UBS allegedly reported tax information incorrectly and cost investors millions, according to the suit.  The bank is accused of not reporting amortizable bond premiums on tax forms that

The Texas Legislature took final action Thursday on a massive property tax cut after beating back attempts in the House to include teacher pay increases and other measures in the bill. Senate Bill 2, which passed the Senate in a 31-0 vote, cleared the House in a 133-4 vote. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who advocated

New York City’s capital program will be getting a much-needed bond boost as the New York City Transitional Finance Authority readies a sale of $1.08 billion of future tax-secured subordinate debt. Proceeds from the sale will be used to fund infrastructure projects in the city’s $164.8 billion 10-year capital plan. The fiscal 2024 executive capital

Property owners fighting Oklahoma Turnpike Authority extension plans blasted the agency in filings this week with the state supreme court, which is nearing a decision on the validity of initial bonds for the $5 billion project. The briefs took issue with OTA’s response last month to questions from the high court concerning the U.S. Bureau

Benjamin S. Wolfe of Short Hills, New Jersey, a former public finance banker passed away on Saturday, July 8, 2023. He was 85. He was born on Aug. 18, 1937, in Newark, New Jersey, to Bertha and Milton Wolfe. He grew up in Newark and graduated from Weequahic High School before earning a bachelor’s degree

California lawmakers are in negotiations on a bill that would ask voters for $15.5 billion of bond authority to help fill a gap in the state’s plans to spend $54 billion over five years to tackle climate change. The state Senate approved Senate Bill 867 on May 31on a 33-5 vote. The bill, currently in

Nashville, Tennessee received a series of upgrades from S&P Global this week. The credit agency on Monday boosted Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County’s long-term general obligation debt rating to AA+ from AA. The upgrades also apply to obligations supported by its non-tax revenue. The outlook is stable. The action reflected Nashville’s efforts to “strengthen its

North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell praised the General Assembly’s override of Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of legislation on environmental social and governance issues. Late last month, the General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto of House Bill 750, which removed political and social considerations from state pension plan investment decisions. “I think the citizens of this