News and Information from Bond Buyer

Public finance lawyer Robert Haight has joined the San Francisco office of Holland & Knight, the firm announced Tuesday.

Lisa Washburn, a managing director with Municipal Market Analytics, is the new chair of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.

Top-rated municipal bonds were weaker at mid-session, according to traders, who returned to their desks to see a substantially smaller slate of new issues scheduled to hit the market in this holiday-shortened week.

The Puerto Rico House of Representatives narrowly passed an energy sector reform bill, in another step toward adoption of a negotiated debt restructuring deal for the island's electric utility.

Tender rates for the Treasury Department's latest 91-day and 182-day discount bills were lower, as the three-months incurred a 0.300% high rate, down from 0.315% the prior week, and the six-months incurred a 0.410% high rate, off from 0.420% the week before.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday it will sell $55 billion of four-week discount bills Wednesday.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said he felt the proposed amendment to the Federal Open Market Committee's Statement of Longer-Run Goals was "insufficiently forward-looking and therefore potentially confusing," so he dissented.

Atlantic City's fiscal distress is a credit negative for New Jersey's Atlantic County, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Demand for municipal mutual funds has increased as investors rebalanced holdings to shelter themselves from domestic and overseas volatility, says Jeffery Elswick of Frost Investment Advisors.

Builders' confidence in the market for new single-family homes was lower as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index declined to 58 in February from an upwardly revised 61 in January.

Saying conditions have made him "a bit more conservative" on monetary policy, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick T. Harker said Tuesday he wants to see inflation rise before the Federal Open Market Committee raises rates again.

Indicator Last Report Forecast Actual Empire State Manufacturing Jan.: -19.37 Feb.: -10.00 Feb.: -16.64 NAHB Housing Index Jan.: 61 Feb.: 60 Feb.: 58

Municipal bond traders on Tuesday are returning to their desks and facing a substantially smaller slate of new issues scheduled to hit the market in this holiday-shortened week.

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey showed "business activity continued to decline for New York manufacturers," the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Friday, although the general business conditions index improved to negative 16.64 in February from negative 19.37 in January.

Jonathan Ballan, a public finance leader at law firm Denton’s, chats with Bond Buyer senior Northeast reporter Paul Burton about alternative approaches to major bond deals, including the Yankee Stadium deal. Ballan, a New York MTA board member and the last chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corp., also discusses transportation issues and MAC’s role in helping the city emerge from the 1970s crisis.

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