California

Raymond James' 10 hires include six senior bankers and an entire Citi public finance team focused on California.

One investor is offloading the debt, while another sees an opportunity.

"Our firm is committed to expanding in regions and sectors with robust muni issuances and we view the K-14 market in California to be a great intersection of such," said Gary Hall, SWS president of infrastructure and public finance.

The San Diego Community College District is among those joining the trend of buying back bonds in a tender to refund for savings.

High rates and high inflation, coupled with rich reserves, pushed off or delayed issuers coming to market in 2023, noted James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.

Munis should remain well bid until issuance picks up "dramatically," said Nuveen's Anders S. Persson and Daniel J. Close.

The state's largest healthcare district by land mass is at risk of breaching financial covenants, according to Moody's Investors Service.

"I think we are starting toward higher volume," said Raul Amezcua, senior director at Samuel A. Ramirez & Co.

Robert Poole, a leading expert in the U.S. public-private partnership transportation sector, joins infrastructure reporter Caitlin Devitt to talk about upcoming deals including toll lanes and bridges in the Southeast and high speed rail in the West as well as states that are advancing P3s and action on the federal front. (37 minutes)

The proposed $1 billion bond measure would fund port improvements needed to push the state's nascent offshore wind power industry forward.

The rating agency cited traction on its financial turnaround in revising the outlook on the junk-rated hospital to stable from negative.

The sale of the bonds allowed ACTA to reshape its debt service profile and avoid projected debt service shortfalls by refunding into capital appreciation bonds and extending maturity dates.

The broker-dealer expands by creating its newly established public finance group in California.

Los Angeles alone reported more than 500 mudslides from a storm that deluged the city for days.

Fitch Ratings downgraded the private-activity bonds supporting LAX's people mover bonds to junk, but said they could fall lower if the airport doesn't reach an agreement on delay concessions.

California voters will weight a $6.4 billion bond measure in March that redirects money from an existing millionaire's tax supporting mental health programs.

Issuance for the month is slightly above the $27.666 billion 10-year average, according to LSEG Refinitiv data.

A private school catering to Los Angeles' wealthiest residents is tapping the municipal bond market to expand its campus and add to its academic offerings. 

Despite fixed-income seeing losses this month, Jeff Lipton, managing director of credit research at Oppenheimer, believes "a performance sea change is nearing."

After the year-end rally, "2024 bond investors have been reluctant buyers, prices creeping lower perhaps until the data and the Fed's next steps are more clear," said Matt Fabian, partner at Municipal Market Analytics.