Bonds

VanEck launched a municipal exchange-traded fund with a sustainability designation, the first ETF of its kind in the municipal space. The VanEck HIP Sustainable Municipal fund, SMI ticker, introduced Friday, is an actively managed fund focusing on investment-grade state and local government debt that funds projects promoting sustainable development, including affordable housing, green spaces and

Municipal bonds were little changed, ignoring another reversal in U.S. Treasuries on Friday ahead of a larger-than-average $10 billion-plus calendar led by California, Texas and New York issuers. Triple-A benchmarks were unmoved again Friday while the 10-year UST rose four basis points and the 30-year four. As such, ratios fell slightly with the 10-year muni-to-Treasury

First of two parts Visceral memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City — and more positively, the response from the capital markets — linger 20 years later. The anniversary comes as the city is trying to emerge from a newer crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, generational

The presidents of the Federal Reserve banks of Boston and Dallas said Thursday they would sell their individual stock holdings by Sept. 30 and invest the proceeds in diversified index funds or hold them in cash. Eric Rosengren, head of the Boston Fed, and Robert Kaplan, president of the Dallas Fed, released near-identical statements Thursday

Moody’s Investors Service upgrade of Maine energy housing and economic recovery bonds to Aa3 was well-deserved, according to its state treasurer. Moody’s on Tuesday boosted the so-called MEHER bonds, which the Maine State Housing Authority issues, to its fourth-highest rating, one notch, for its Series 2021 1 and 2 bonds, while maintaining a stable outlook.

Title: Director Public Finance — Credit StrategyFirm: Wells FargoAge: 39 Kristen Fontana always had an affinity for the policy side of public finance. After dipping her toes into public finance with an internship at an investment bank during the financial crisis, she decided to go back to school for a graduate degree. There, Kristen said,

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Wednesday the department will probably exhaust its ability to avoid breaching the federal debt limit sometime in October and renewed her call on Congress to boost or suspend the ceiling. “Based on our best and most recent information, the most likely outcome is that cash and extraordinary measures will be

Melissa Norcia was appointed the chief administrative officer for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System on Tuesday. Norcia starts September 15 and replaces Lisa Blatnick, who became CalSTRS chief operating officer in August. CalSTRS was established by law in 1913 to provide retirement benefits to California’s public school educators from prekindergarten through community college. Today,

Chicago’s finance team dug in this week on it plan to scrap $950 million of scoop-and-toss borrowing amid pushback from council members who want the city to put more federal COVID-19 pandemic relief toward social investments. Several council members pressed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s finance team to consider some limited form of debt restructuring to free

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi asked the bankruptcy judge to pause an Oversight Board suit against a law the board says would scuttle the Plan of Adjustment. Pierluisi’s lawyers filed the request with Judge Laura Taylor Swain Wednesday evening in an adversary proceeding part of the bankruptcy. The governor signed Act 7-2021, a law which

In a prolonged low-interest-rate environment, many issuers may have paid little heed to arbitrage on bond proceeds. But that could change, and municipal advisors and bond counsel are staying vigilant on their clients’ behalf. “Declining interest rates make it generally easier to manage arbitrage,” said Adam Harden, partner at Locke Lord in Texas. “If an

California received an outlook boost to positive from S&P Global Ratings as the state prepares to sell more than $2 billion of general obligation bonds. The deal will land the week of a Sept. 14 recall election targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom. But California’s surplus and budgetary changes that occurred after the 2008 economic crash will

Jennifer Fredericks joined Ice Miller LLP last month to take on the newly created role of director of business development for public finance. Fredericks left Bank of New York Mellon, where she was a vice president of business development for the corporate trust group, to take the Ice Miller position. At BNY Mellon she led

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to extend the deadline to pass the Series 54 exam two weeks to Nov. 30, 2021, from the previous date of Nov. 12. The extension comes, as promised, shortly after the agency began offering remote examinations following news that a municipal

The municipal market was little changed on Friday as a disappointing August jobs number punctuated an otherwise lackluster day of light trading activity ahead of the Labor Day holiday. Trading fell to a trickle at about $2.1 billion near the close and triple-A benchmarks were unmoved, outperforming a cheaper U.S. Treasury market which saw the

The catastrophic remnants of Hurricane Ida snuck up on Northeast states Wednesday, catching officials and the general population off-guard. But such a storm, still delivering massive amounts of rain more than 1,300 miles from its Louisiana landfall, is no outlier, one New Jersey climate official warned. “It may be a different animal, as you put

The municipal market traded sideways and activity was muted on Thursday as U.S. Treasuries were steady and equities in the black ahead of the much-anticipated employment report to be released Friday. Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.044 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Sept. 1, down from the $1.9 billion a

Widespread Puerto Rico power outages this week are highlighting the extended age of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s infrastructure and its impact on the economy. The outages affected 33% to 37% of the authority’s customers since Monday and will continue to afflict many for a few more days, according to PREPA. Demand has been

Municipal trading dropped 25% on Wednesday after an already very slow few days in the secondary, leaving municipal benchmark yields little changed, as U.S. Treasuries also held steady and most participants began checking out for the holiday weekend. For the 25th week in a row, municipal bond mutual funds saw inflows of nearly $2 billion,

St. Louis’ multi-year trend of surpluses garnered an upgrade from Moody’s Investors Service that reverses a trend of downgrades from the rating agency. Moody’s raised the city’s general obligation rating to A3 with a stable outlook from Baa1 Monday. The St. Louis Municipal Corp.’s lease appropriation debt for essential purposes rose to Baa1 from Baa2