News and Information from Bond Buyer

For the 31st week in a row, municipal bond funds reported inflows, according to Lipper data released Thursday. Weekly reporting funds saw $709.727 million of inflows in the week ended May 4, after inflows of $1.173 billion in the previous week, Lipper said.

In the week ended May 5, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index fell three basis points to 3.93% from 3.96% in the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

S&P Global Ratings lowered its rating on Albany, N.Y.'s general obligation (GO) bonds one notch to 'A+' from 'AA-'. The outlook is negative. At the same time, we assigned an 'A+' long-term rating and negative outlook to the city's 2016 refunding GO bonds.

Two rating agencies flagged North Carolina’s implementation of House Bill 2 in upcoming bond offerings amid a national controversy over the law seen by some as discriminatory towards the LGBT community.

A one-day strike by the faculty of the San Francisco Community College District is a bad sign because it shows a strong resistance to the district’s efforts to balance its books, Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday.

New York City on Thursday announced new underwriting syndicates for its bond sales and those of the Transitional Finance Authority and Municipal Water Finance Authority. The city said the selections represent an increase to 31% in the share of minority and women-owned business enterprises assigned on a rotating basis as book-running senior managers.

Top-rated municipal bonds ended steady to stronger on Thursday, traders said, as the last of this week’s big sales came to market, led by deals from issuers in New York and California.

Newly issued Treasury securities held in stripped form increased about $1.269 billion in April to a total of $215.865 billion, the Bureau of the Public Debt reported Thursday.

Two hospital districts in the Permian Basin oil producing region of West Texas took downgrades from Moody’s Investors Service, one to speculative grade.

Developers of a proposed $12 billion Houston-Dallas bullet train want federal regulators to affirm their oversight of project.

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said Puerto Rico has to “cut its debt way down” in order to survive.

The financial crises in Chicago and Illinois may get worse before they get better, experts told the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.

The par amount and number of municipal securities trades rose in the first quarter of this year, compared to both the previous and same quarters last year, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board statistics posted Thursday. But the number of continuing disclosure documents received dropped to 46,623 in the first quarter of this year from 47,934 during the same period last year.

Assured Guaranty Ltd., reported declines in first quarter 2016 net income and operating income, while reaching new records with the adjusted book value per share, all in the face of a continuing challenging interest rate environment.

California is spending big on water and sewer infrastructure, with multiple large deals from state and local issuers, including transactions with green bond certifications.

Top-rated municipal bonds were unchanged at mid-session, traders said, as the last of this week's big new issues came to market, led by bond sales from issuers in New York and California.

The Federal Open Market Committee plans to gradually return rates to "normal" levels while the markets see a shallower path, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard noted Thursday.

The Treasury Department said Thursday it will auction $31 billion 91-day bills and $26 billion 182-day discount bills Monday.

A regulatory official and market participants sparred over the merits of the Securities and Exchange Commission's voluntary continuing disclosure enforcement initiative during a panel here on Wednesday while acknowledging the need to improve municipal disclosure.