Public finance

In the week ended Nov. 19, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index fell to 4.35% from 4.38% in the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

Legislative gridlock in Congress over long-term transportation funding is causing problems for the states.

Municipal market trading plummeted to $551 billion in the third quarter, the lowest level since at least 2005 when the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board began recording the statistics, according to the board.

ALABAMA

ARKANSAS

Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White on Wednesday declined to take a position on a bill that would increase hedge fund reporting in the wake of fund purchases of Puerto Rico’s debt, saying it has both pros and cons..

COLORADO

COLORADO

The 32-year-old national fixed-income shop First Empire Securities has begun underwriting new-issue municipal bonds it could offer to its institutional clients and opened a Chicago office.

The Senate will consider a House-approved transportation appropriations bill that keeps fiscal 2016 highway funding at fiscal 2015 levels.

California’s treasurer has launched an open data website that he says will make it easier to analyze $1.5 trillion in debt issued in the state since 1984.

Unrated Scranton, Pa., is taking steps to regain the good graces of the capital markets, said its mayor and business administrator.

ILLINOIS

CONNECTICUT

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leaders have introduced a bill that would extend transportation funding through Dec. 4 to give House and Senate conferees time to negotiate a multiyear measure.

INDIANA

ARKANSAS

Citigroup municipal strategist George Friedlander is delivering a presentation about how evolving technology is impacting the public finance industry at the Nov. 19 meeting of the Philadelphia Area Municipal Analyst Society (PhAMAS).

EAX Trading pulled the plug last week on a two-year effort to launch a municipal bond electronic trading platform aimed at the secondary market.

Pennsylvania's prolonged budget impasse is a credit negative for school districts and community colleges that rely on state-aid distributions, said Moody's.