Kyle Glazier

Lifting the more than 100 year-old federal law restricting the height of buildings in the District of Columbia would eventually expand the city's "very limited tax base," D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi told a House subcommittee.

Existing home sales fell 5.4% in June to a seasonally adjusted 4.37 million-unit rate, after an upwardly revised 4.62 million rate in May, the National Association of Realtors announced Thursday.

The Virginia Small Business Financing Authority will price 262.3 million of bonds on behalf of 95 Express Lanes LLC next week, financing which is expected to pair with a $300 million federal loan for one of Virginia's biggest public-private partnerships.

Reports from most of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicated that overall economic activity continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace in June and early July, according to the Beige Book, released Wednesday.

Housing starts rose 6.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 760,000 in June from a revised estimate of 711,000 in May, originally reported as 708,000, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The importance of passenger facility fees, often used to back bonds, has grown in recent years and is likely to continue playing an expanding role in financing airport capital projects, according to a new Fitch Ratings report.

Business inventories were up 0.3% to $1,578.4 billion in May, while sales fell 0.1% to $1,245.2 billion, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

Retail sales dropped 0.5% to $401.5 billion in June after declining an unrevised 0.2% in May, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

The outlook for bond-financed transportation infrastructure remains stable, but could possibly see a downturn if the slow economic recovery loses momentum or if banks are downgraded. according to a new mid-year report from Fitch Ratings.

An analysis of rating actions shows that public-private partnerships are highly exposed to the effects of downgrades and negatives outlooks applied to participants in the P3, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service released Thursday.

The federal government ran a $59.7 billion budget deficit in June after posting an unrevised $124.6 billion deficit the previous month, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.

Big bond commitments will be a major piece of the funding puzzle when it comes to constructing a national high-speed rail system, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood affirmed Wednesday.

The Federal Open Market Committee agreed to leave forward guidance on monetary policy alone for another month, but members expressed the possibility of further action if the economic recovery continues to expand at a slower-than-projected pace, according to the minutes of its June 19 meeting, released Wednesday.

Sales of merchant wholesalers dropped 0.8% to $409.6 billion in May after rising a revised 0.6% in April, originally reported as a 1.1% gain, while inventories rose 0.3%, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The U.S. international trade deficit was $48.7 billion for May, a 3.8% drop from the revised $50.6 billion deficit for April, originally reported as $50.1 billion, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Two Virginia authorities will price a total of more than $200 million of bonds in separate negotiated deals over the next week. The Virginia Resources Authority will price $81 million of bonds in a pool deal on behalf of 13 local issuers on July 12. In addition, the Commonwealth Transportation Board will sell $125.5 million of grant anticipation revenue bonds less than a week later.

Consumer credit increased by $17.1 billion, or 8.0%, in May to $2.572.8 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.

A U.S. appeals court will take up a lawsuit as early as October that attacks the financial backing of billions of bonds paying for the Washington Metrorail's Silver Line Extension to Dulles Airport.

Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims fell to 374,000 for the week ending June 30, while continuing claims for the previous week rose slightly to 3.306 million, the Department of Labor reported Thursday.

President Obama will sign the compromise two-year, $105 billion highway bill at a White House ceremony on July 6.