Interest rates

The Fed's expected September rate cut will "make market conditions more conducive to moving projects forward" said Dodge Construction Network's chief economist Richard Branch.

New York Fed President John Williams said the Fed "will cut rates eventually" during a fireside chat at Milken Institute's Global conference on Monday.

Munis posted losses in April, returning negative 1.24%. The asset class is also seeing losses of 1.62% year-to-date.

A majority of those polled at The Bond Buyer's 2024 National Outlook Conference also felt issuance would increase moderately this year, to between $400 billion and $450 billion.

Interest rates and federal elections hang heavy over the industry and municipal analysts believe certain muni sectors or subsectors will experience credit deterioration.

The BSBY interest rate benchmark was originally envisioned as a successor to the once-ubiquitous Libor rate. But it failed to gain much traction, and Bloomberg now plans to shut it down next year.

Proceeds from the deal, along with additional monies, were to have been used to fund the costs of the Royal Caribbean Cruises' campus project as well as a debt service reserve fund.

Concerns about large unrealized losses on bond investments have receded since the spring banking crisis, but the paper losses have started growing again in recent months. The worries today are less about banks' survival — and more about how much their margins will get squeezed.

Analysts look at whether the FOMC will bring the last rate hike in the cycle, whether recession is coming, and whether the Fed is making a policy mistake.

Much uncertainty remains as the second half of the year begins, with Federal Reserve rates, recession and inflation all still to be decided.

Bond traders have overestimated month-over-month headline inflation heading into four of the last seven Consumer Price Index releases, says strategist Raghav Datla.

The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet next week with many experts expecting to see a pause in federal fund rate hikes after ten straight upticks.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams says there is no evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has ended the era of very low interest rates experienced before the crisis, although growth may be slower in the long run.

It's one of four state cases accusing Wall Street banks of a "robo-resetting" scheme that kept interest on variable-rate debt artificially high.

The reverberations from the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures make the outcome of this week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting unpredictable.

Shares in Silicon Valley Bank's parent company plunged 60% after executives announced they would sell a large bond portfolio at a big loss. The market "seems to be pricing in greater liquidity needs" than the bank currently anticipates, one analyst said.

Ellis Phifer, managing director and senior strategist in the fixed income research department at Raymond James, talks with Chip Barnett about the state of the bond markets. (Taped Feb. 16; 15 minutes)

The Federal Reserve's quantitative-tightening program risks being propelled toward an early end as U.S. politicians bicker in Washington over raising the national debt limit, according to some economists and bond market participants.

The JPMorgan Chase CEO said the Federal Reserve's rate hikes might need to go beyond what's currently expected, but he's in favor of a pause to see the full impact of last year's increases.

The Federal Reserve will slow the pace of interest-rate increases next month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powel suggested Wednesday, while stressing borrowing costs will need to keep rising.