News and Information from Bond Buyer

The National Association of Bond Lawyers wants the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to revise the management contract guidance released in August, which it says is confusing and could limit the usefulness of safe harbors in short-term contacts.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has announced that its dealer markup rule will take effect on May 14, 2018.

Top-rated municipal bonds finished weaker on Tuesday, according to traders, as action got underway in the primary market. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose five basis points while the yield on the 30-year increased three basis points.

WASHINGTON – Capping the tax exemption for municipal bonds over a nine-year period would have cost state and local governments roughly $175 billion in additional borrowing costs, while a full repeal would have cost them nearly $500 billion more, state and local officials warned Tuesday.

Puerto Rico Governor-Elect Ricardo Rosselló chose his campaign manager, Elías Sánchez Sifonte, to replace public finance veteran Richard Ravitch as the island government's non-voting representative to the Puerto Rico Oversight Board.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. scrapped the closing on $377.6 million in revenue and general obligation bonds it priced for El Camino Hospital in northern California after the U.S. Justice Department subpoenaed documents from the hospital.

Ranking Democrats on House Transportation Committee seek full road funding boost promised for 2017.

Federal Reserve Board Governor Jerome Powell, who as recently as the end of September was promoting patience on rate hikes, appears to be on board with an increase in the fed funds rate target at the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Joining the crowd of borrowers, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission plans a $438 million deal next week, marking its first new money sale in four years.

Top-rated municipal bonds were weaker at mid-session, according to traders, as the week's action got underway in the primary market Tuesday.

Connecticut and Illinois state treasurers, in partnership with shareholder activists, called for a change in Wells Fargo’s corporate bylaws to ensure an independent non-executive board chair.

The Treasury Department Tuesday auctioned $45 billion of four-week bills at a 0.365% high yield, a price of 99.971611.

A request for state Supreme Court validation on $420 million of toll revenue bonds has sidelined the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority deal as rates rose in post-election investor uncertainty.

A second rating agency has dropped Chicago-based Roosevelt University into junk territory over as enrollment struggles and a heavy debt load strain its balance sheet.

Texas service sector activity "picked up in November," according to business executives responding to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey, as the revenue index grew to 13.7 from 9.9.

Indicator Last Report Forecast Actual GDP Q2: +1.4% Q3: +3.0% Q3: +3.2% Final Sales Q2: +2.6% Q3: +2.5% Q3: +2.7% Core PCE Deflator Q2: +1.8% Q3: +1.8% Q3: +1.7% Consumer Confidence Oct.: 100.8 Nov.: 101.1 Nov.: 107.1

The consumer confidence index increased to 107.1 in November from a revised 100.8 last month, The Conference Board reported Tuesday.

Action is set to get underway in the municipal bond primary market as the week's $9.1 billion new issues start to hit the screens on Tuesday.

Climate Bonds Initiative CEO Sean Kidney, in a spirited chat from London with northeast regional editor Paul Burton, charts the landscape for the U.S. municipal green bond issuance.

Tuesday, November 29 Issuer St Description Amount