News and Information from Bond Buyer

The weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, fell two basis points in the week ending Oct. 30 to 4.35%.

Municipals ended mostly steady to a smidge weaker in an uneventful trading day marked by the lack of any major market-moving events in the tax-exempt arena, and the disappearance of early gains in Treasuries.

Government

The University of Missouri Curators sold $150 million of new-money taxable bonds Monday with tentative plans to return the market next year to fund another $100 million in approved projects.

The Georgia Supreme Court set oral arguments in the Atlanta Falcons stadium appeal Nov. 3, and could hear arguments against the Atlanta Braves stadium in February.

Federal TIFIA loans and similar programs will become more prevalent as conventional highway grants shrink, according to Fitch Ratings, which says TIFIA loans have pluses and minuses for borrowers and other investors.

The judge in Stockton's bankruptcy case has approved the city's plan to exit bankruptcy, without impairing the California Public Employees Retirement System.

Michigan's decade-long policy of repeatedly cutting local aid to help deal with its own fiscal problems has helped drive some of its local governments into fiscal crisis, the Chicago Fed says in a new report.

Claims against UBS from Puerto Rican investors have surged to $900 million, the group said Tuesday in its third-quarter earnings report.

Wisconsin will refund $132 million of transportation revenue bonds on Thursday, two days after state voters cast a decision on a proposed constitutional amendment that would bar future raids on the state's transportation fund for other expenses.

Moody's Investors Service said it has downgraded to A2 from A1 the rating on Spokane County, Wash.'s airport enterprise revenue bonds.

Convicted bid-riggers Peter Ghavami, Michael Welty, and Gary Heinz are urging a federal appeals court to overturn a lower court's decision on the basis of an expired statute of limitations, improper testimony, and other alleged errors in their earlier trial, but the federal government is arguing the lower court was correct to punish the former UBS AG executives.

The Virginia Tobacco Settlement Financing Corp. won't have to dip into reserves this year thanks to a settlement with bankrupt Lehman Brothers.

The municipal market was quiet Thursday afternoon, with an unchanged tone from the open as the $400 million Illinois State Toll Road Authority offering was the largest deal to price in the primary market and traders reported limited activity in the secondary market.

Business tax professionals expect tax reform in the next several years, with 2017 being the most likely year for enactment, the latest Tax Reform Business Barometer from The Tax Council and Ernst & Young LLP found.

Hawaii plans to price $150 million in green bonds the week of Nov. 3 in its first foray into the bond market with its new Green Energy Market Securitization Program.

Toll roads across the nation can expect to see higher volumes of traffic as lower fuel prices encourages more driving, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The Treasury Department auctioned $29 billion of seven-year notes, with a 2% coupon, a 2.018% high yield, a price of 99.883043.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its long-term rating on the village of Lake Hallie, Wis.' general obligation (GO) promissory notes to AA from AA-minus.