Public finance

Sophisticated investors are grabbing for high-yield municipal debt whenever they can find it, creating demand for alternatives beyond the Puerto Rico, Detroit, and tobacco bonds that dominate the non-investment grade segment of the secondary market.

Bipartisan bill introduced in the House would divert 10% of federal highway dollars to state-run transportation grant programs that would fund local projects.

CALIFORNIA

ARIZONA

Foreign investors' buildup in U.S. municipal bond holdings has heightened significance in the current low-supply high-demand market environment, in which an emerging group of buyers could cause competition for the limited amount of bonds available to spike.

Inflows to municipal bond funds dropped by 58% in the week ending Sept. 17.

The weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, was unchanged the week of Sept. 18 at 4.46%.

Any sale of the art in the Detroit Institute of Arts would make the DIA "persona non grata in the museum world," a museum official and an art finance consultant testified at a trial on the city's bankruptcy exit plan.

House committee okays plan to cut Amtrak's allocation for capital projects to $770 million a year from the current $1.3 billion.

CALIFORNIA

ARIZONA

The Michigan Strategic Fund approved the issuance of $450 million of 30-year bonds to finance a new hockey stadium near downtown Detroit, a transaction that will feature a mix of tax-exempt and taxable debt, a mandatory tender and interest-rate swaps.

P3s can often deliver high-cost projects more quickly than wholly public efforts but can't solve the nation's infrastructure deficit alone.

Tolls on existing interstate highways will be an increasingly common way of funding road projects within 10 years, experts say.

CALIFORNIA

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

The two counterparty banks on Detroit's interest-rate swaps no longer need to drop their claims against Syncora Guarantee Inc. after Syncora agreed to modify its settlement with the city.

A federal banking rule that doesn't classify municipal bonds as high-quality liquid assets needs to be reworked to ensure it won't impede critical infrastructure development, Sen. Chuck Schumer told regulators on Tuesday.

Texas is trying new ideas in infrastructure transportation funding to keep up with demand from a growing population.

Moments after Janney Capital Markets cited "cracks" in the foundation of state credit quality nationwide, Pennsylvania said it would have to loan money to itself to keep running.