Public finance

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.

CALIFORNIA

ALABAMA

Municipal bond funds reported inflows for the sixth week in a row, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.

In the week ended Nov. 12, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index rose to 4.38% from 4.35% from the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

Rating changes are likely for hundreds of credits as Moody's Investors Service prepares a methodology revision for moral obligations, lease-revenue bonds and other appropriation-backed credits.

New York and New Jersey announced a deal to allow a long-stalled Amtrak tail runnel project between New York and New Jersey to move full steam ahead.

The Federal Transit Administration estimates that more than $131 billion will be needed for transit systems in poor and marginal condition, including almost $86 billion to replace infrastructure that has already exceeded its useful life, Moody’s Investment Service said in a report issued on Thursday.