News and Information from Bond Buyer

Moving interest rates from zero should be done "relatively soon" because not only is it appropriate, but also because it will give the Fed flexibility should another economic slowdown occur, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George said late Thursday.

Indicator Last Report Forecast Actual Import Prices May: +0.3% June: +0.3% June: +0.1% Empire State Manufacturing June: 19.28 July: 17.10 July: 25.60 Retail Sales May: +0.5% June: +0.6% June: +0.2% ex-Autos May: +0.4% June: +0.5% June: +0.4% Business Inventories April: +0.6% May: +0.6% May: +0.5%

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ALABAMA

CALIFORNIA

The House adopted a 10-month, $10.8 billion short-term fix for the almost insolvent Highway Trust Fund.

The presiding officers of the Suffolk and Nassau County Legislatures in New York are meeting to find ways to cut costs and improve services.

States should consider tying rainy day fund deposits to volatile revenue streams in order to improve their saving methods, according to a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Government

Municipal bond demand is helping the New York City Transitional Finance Authority to find a market for its $675 million of revenue multimodal bonds with a mandatory tender feature.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals set an accelerated two-week schedule to consider bond insurer Syncora Guarantee's appeal of a key decision in Detroit's bankruptcy case.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will re-propose its draft Rule G-42 on the duties of non-solicitor advisors, the MSRB confirmed Tuesday.

Plans to close or sell four of Atlantic City's twelve casinos this year will pressure the city government's already tenuous finances, analysts say.

Dealers pay less for munis than customers, particularly when there is more time between trades, according to a long-awaited study commissioned by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. But market sources say the finding is not surprising and that the report is limited in its results.

Moody's has hit well over a dozen Illinois municipal credits — led by Chicago and Cook County — with single and multiple notch downgrades over the last year primarily due to the strains of their unfunded pension liabilities.

Puerto Rico's non-voting representative in Congress met with credit rating agencies and investment bankers in New York last weekend, seeking to assure them of Puerto Rico's economic future.

Chances for swift passage of a billion bailout of the highway fund rise with Obama's support of the House's temporary fix.

A ruling that Stockton's pension obligations can be treated the same as other contracts in municipal bankruptcy would have significant impacts on some local government bondholders in California, according to Moody's Investors Service.