Markets

States face a multi-trillion infrastructure gap, which they need to address with a sense of urgency, a speaker at the Milken Institute Global Conference said.

Moody's upgraded five Illinois public universities after lifting the state government's rating, lifting one to investment grade and putting three others closer.

Municipal returns in April were deeply negative, bringing the year-to-date figure to near 9% losses, the largest posted on the Bloomberg Muni Index since its inception in the 1980s.

Illinois expects to sell about $1 billion of new-money general obligation debt but the deal could grow if market conditions permit savings on a refunding piece.

Investors will be greeted Monday with a steep drop in volume, with the new-issue calendar estimated at $4.583 billion — less than half of this week's supply.

Total April volume was $34.329 billion in 729 deals versus $37.105 billion in 1,124 issues a year earlier.

This is the second time S&P Global Ratings placed New Orleans on negative CreditWatch due to long delays in publishing audited financial statements.

Investors pulled more from municipal bond mutual funds in the latest week, with Refinitiv Lipper reporting $2.875 billion of outflows, down from $3.548 billion of outflows in the previous week.

Several firms' ability to underwrite municipal bond issues in Texas is under review.

In a recent survey, just over half of community bankers expressed concern that the central bank will harm the U.S. economy by raising rates too fast in its quest to contain inflation.