Puerto Rico net General Fund revenues came in 3.1% ahead of projections in May. The Puerto Rico Department of the Treasury said through the first 11 months of fiscal 2020-2021, net revenues were ahead by 1.14%, at $10.2 billion. The Treasury Department’s actual figures are compared to the Puerto Rico Oversight Board’s projections. Puerto Rico
Bonds
Issuance in July fell more than 30% short of 2020 figures but is roughly 13% above the month’s 10-year average, while total issuance for the year-to-date is ahead of last year’s record-breaking pace by a small margin. At $31.9 billion, municipal bond volume was 33.1% lower this month than July 2020 when it totaled a
Triple-A benchmarks were little changed on Friday while U.S. Treasuries ended the week stronger amid mixed economic data. Muni participants await a new month with growing issuance, but perhaps not quite enough as issuers are hesitant to add more debt before final word from Washington on infrastructure. The net negative supply likely will keep interest
As climate change accelerates, electric grids are expected to experience severe weather events that are well beyond the historical conditions for which they were built. In this session, moderator Donald J. Gonzales, senior managing director of the San Antonio office of Estrada Hinojosa & Co., Inc. is joined by panelists Chris Jumper, director of Assured;
A bankruptcy judge conditionally approved a Disclosure Statement on Puerto Rico’s $35 billion debt restructuring proposal, sending it to debt holder voters later this year. The Puerto Rico Oversight Board told the bankruptcy court during the Thursday hearing that the board was considering two alternative approaches to passing its Plan of Adjustment after Puerto Rico
The Federal Reserve has toyed for years with opening something called a standing repo facility to prevent short-term rates markets from blowing up. Following a 2019 disruption and another early in the pandemic, the central bank finally took that step. The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building Bloomberg News The permanent repurchase-agreement facility, one for
Municipals were a touch weaker outside of 15 years Wednesday as U.S. Treasury yields rose after the Federal Open Market Committee minutes were released but pared back losses as the afternoon progressed and were back at Tuesday’s levels near the close. The tapering conversation continues, but Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell said the FOMC
The Puerto Rico Oversight Board reached a deal for an improved treatment of the Puerto Rico Infrastructure and Finance Authority rum tax bonds with two bond insurers, which had been key opponents of the central government debt deal. The board announced the deal with Ambac Assurance and Financial Guaranty Insurance Company Tuesday morning in a
Municipals were slightly firmer in secondary trading while new-issues were repriced to lower yields from initial pricing wires. U.S. Treasuries were stronger and equities sold off ahead of the FOMC meeting Wednesday. The current market technicals combined with a slowdown in issuance is creating a general malaise in the municipal market, according to a New
Municipals were stronger on the short end, hitting record low levels for the second time this year, in quiet trading while U.S. Treasuries were treading water and equities did much the same as all markets await Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting announcement. Triple-A benchmarks moved one to two basis points lower inside of five
The Government Finance Research Center at University of Illinois Chicago has tapped public and not-for-profit financial management professional Deborah Carroll to fill the director’s shoes being vacated by the retiring Michael Pagano. Carroll comes from the University of Central Florida where she was an associate professor in the School of Public Administration and the director
A busy Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board quarterly board meeting saw Patrick Brett selected as fiscal year 2022 chair, the adoption of a multi-year strategic plan, decisions on several regulatory initiatives and the adoption of a $43 million operating budget. Those and other developments emerged at the MSRB’s in-person meeting held July 21-22 in Washington. Brett,
The Puerto Rico Oversight Board cast doubt Friday on a temporary deal between the truckers and the interim governor which is pausing the truckers’ strike. Around 9:30 p.m. Thursday Gov. Pedro Pierluisi announced the temporary deal in two tweets. The deal was with the striking truckers’ union, Frente Amplio de Camioneros. Pierluisi was off the
What bond-market guru Mohammed El-Erian said Friday was enough to make bond investors listen like they’re in an old E.F. Hutton commercial. “Inflation is not going to be transitory,” the chief economic adviser at Allianz SE said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. El-Erian likened it to his belief in 1999 that Argentina would default,
Municipals were steady in typical summer Friday style ahead of a less-than-robust new-issue calendar to end July. The U.S. Treasury 10-year ends 10 basis points higher than it started the week, but back to levels of a week ago, while the stock market rallied and earnings pushed them to all-time record highs Friday. Triple-A benchmarks
The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority plans to refund $1.8 billion of outstanding 2012 debt in an August deal, coming into a market that is starved for high-yield paper. For several months the authority and the Puerto Rico Oversight Board has mentioned the possibility of refunding the authority’s Series 2012A bonds. On Friday it
Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. agreed to pay $230 million to resolve federal charges in connection with an alleged bribery scheme involving a $1 billion public bailout for two nuclear power plants owned by a bankrupt subsidiary with municipal debt. Federal authorities charged the public utility holding company with conspiring to commit honest services wire fraud.
Analysts say a strike of Puerto Rico truckers is a threat to the island’s economy and a challenge for the Oversight Board. The board spent a page in the most recent fiscal plan talking about the need to not extend the minimum rates to privately negotiated trucking contracts. The truckers are striking for this as
A group of bondholders with a stake in Great Lakes Senior Living Communities LLC’s $380 million of debt agreed to a forbearance that diverts funds earmarked for debt service to pay for capital needs under a restructuring designed to help the facilities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic’s blows. The bonds sold through the Arizona Industrial
The top bond counsel firms combined for a total of $220.03 billion in 6,077 transactions in the first half of 2021, up from the $191.51 billion in 5,124 deals in the first half of 2020. Only one firm remained in the same spot they were at this point last year, the rest of the rankings
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell enjoys broad support for his renomination among top White House advisers, though the decision is expected later this year and hasn’t yet been put in front of President Joe Biden, according to people familiar with the matter. But Biden officials are keeping an open mind about how the administration can
eMerge Americas, a venture-backed platform focused on changing Miami into the tech hub of the Americas, closed a round of investment led by Florida Funders, the firm announced on Tuesday. Florida Funders is a a venture capital fund and an angel investor network, and its investment in eMerge Americas is aimed at helping Miami’s tech
The National League of Cities is calling on lawmakers to take swift action on infrastructure funding, even as the path forward remains extremely muddled ahead of a vote planned Wednesday. The brief NLC letter, dated July 19 and addressed to House and Senate leadership of both parties, references a previous more comprehensive policy document from
Municipals underperformed a flight-to-safety rally in U.S. Treasuries as COVID-19 and its variants surge around the globe, pushing edgy investors to flee the stock market, as some contemplate the idea the economic recovery has peaked, and will potentially regress from the virus’ effects. Municipal triple-A benchmarks were pushed to lower yields by one to three
President Joe Biden said he believes the surge in U.S. inflation is temporary and that he has told Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that he respects the central bank’s independence. Biden said Monday at the White House that recent price increases are “temporary,” countering Republican arguments that the president’s economic spending plans would cause inflation
Richard “Dick” L. Weill, 78, a pioneer in the financial guaranty insurance industry and former vice chairman of MBIA Insurance Corporation, died on July 4. With over 40 years of experience in the municipal bond industry, Weill was a former partner and municipal bond attorney at Kutak Rock before joining MBIA in 1989 as general
Florida has seen 14 straight months of job growth, gaining 69,300 private sector jobs in June, the state’s Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday. June’s increase was more than double the May gain of 34,600 jobs and the largest rise of the year. Since the height of the pandemic in April 2020, Florida has gained
The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority of Illinois trimmed its spread penalties in the first primary outing of an Illinois-linked borrower to reap the benefits of the state’s positive rating momentum. The agency that manages Chicago’s downtown convention center campus priced $811 million of refunding bonds Thursday. It saw a 98 basis point spread to
Chicago is searching for a financial advisor to help assess development proposals as it looks to stake out a share of the casino gambling market with the promise of a roughly $200 million annual jackpot. The city launched a request for qualifications for an advisor July 14 to help evaluate proposals it receives from a
Municipals ended the week steady along with U.S. Treasuries ahead of one of the more diverse and chunky calendars the summer has seen while supply still simply isn’t keeping up with demand, which should keep municipal yields in a tight range. The total potential volume for next week is estimated at $9.033 billion, up from total