News and Information from Bond Buyer

Revenues have exceeded expectations for both the month and the fiscal year.

Reps. Brian Mast and Bill Posey asked Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao not to extend a Dec. 31 deadline to issue private activity bonds.

Bitvore Corp. is offering analysts and portfolio managers free updates on the impact of fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

RBC Capital Markets hired Paul Sheldon, founder of the advisory firm S L Capital Strategies, as a managing director in the municipal finance student loan group.

The municipal bond market will see a week of meager issuance, as all eyes are on the Federal Open Market Committee and its upcoming meeting.

While bond market prognosticators are confident the Federal Open Market Committee will raise the fed funds rate target by 25 basis points this week, they remain less certain on the outlook for 2019.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit will finance a 26-mile commuter rail line to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport with a $908 million RRIF loan.

Builders’ confidence in the market for new single-family homes fell in December as affordability issues remain.

The municipal bond market winds down the year by seeing only $1 billion of new issues slated to price this week. It’s a far cry from last December, which saw a mad rush to market ahead of the new tax laws.

Business activity “continued to expand, though growth was noticeably slower than in recent months,” the December Empire State Manufacturing Survey suggested.

A state economist reviewed a litany of problems lawmakers will face developing the state budget.

The holiday season kicks off for the municipal bond market as new issue supply slows to a crawl while the year winds down.

Atlantic City casino revenue was up 20% year-over-year in November.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel says his pension package offers a path to further stabilize city employees' pensions without burdening taxpayers.

Analyst Marc Joffe says bulk downloading should be free on EMMA.

As the end of the year approaches, new issue supply slows down.

Moody's underscored the sense of uncertainty facing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority by dropping its outlook to negative.

Outstanding government receivables remain a constraining factor to the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority's credit profile after it refinanced two notes.

In the week ended Dec. 13, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, fell to 4.13% from 4.15% last week.

Hilltop Securities chairman Hill Feinberg will hand over his title as president and chief executive to Piper Jaffray banker Bradley Winges.