Markets

UBS' Head of Municipal Trading Doug Vissicchio joins Bond Buyer's Lynne Funk to talk muni shop.

S&P Global Ratings joined Moody's in assigning a negative outlook to its triple-A rating, but a criteria change pushed Fitch's rating of the city up to AAA.

Inflows returned to muni mutual funds as investors added $200.3 million for the week ending Wednesday after $1.474 billion of outflows, according to LSEG Lipper.

It's a big week for the Fortress-backed train company, which refinanced more than $4 billion of debt and broke ground on its West Coast high-speed line.

"Just like the ATM became an additional transaction channel in the banking industry, I believe distributed ledger technology will provide municipal issuers with a similarly valued tool to sell their bonds," said Rick Coscia, Quincy's Strategic Asset Manager.

"Each party in this deal benefits in some way," said Seema Mohanty, founder of Mohanty Gargiulo.

The "impressive" investor appetite for tax-exempts has been "holding steady all quarter despite expensive valuations, supply surges and periods of low reinvestment demand," said GW&K Investment Management strategists in a report.

As space becomes an increasingly important frontier for development and competition, spaceports should enjoy the same financial benefits as airports and seaports, say supporters of the federal legislation.

The governor should have involved the legislature earlier in decision making on how to give the Water and Power Authority money to make a bond payment, lawmakers said.

Along with UBS' departure from the negotiated underwriting space, various firms have hired talent from both firms to increase their primary and secondary market presence. Many hope for some positive effects in both competition and secondary market liquidity as a result.