Washington

State spending grew 7.8% to cover the expenses of battling COVID-19.

Fed Governor Lael Brainard has slipped from among top contenders for Treasury secretary under Joe Biden, according to people familiar with the matter, as the president-elect’s team winnows its choices for key positions.

With rates at the effective lower bound, increased asset purchases will be the Fed’s main monetary policy easing tool going forward, and that's what analysts will be scanning the FOMC minutes for.

The Federal Reserve said Friday it would comply with a Treasury Department request to return unused funds meant to backstop five emergency lending programs, moving to tamp down a public rift that arose a day earlier.

Analysts, issuers and lawmakers have mixed responses to the closure of the Municipal Liquidity Facility with some saying the move puts the municipal market in a precarious spot as COVID-19 continues to ravage the country.

While the facilities' availability inspired market confidence, the fact that $455 billion remains unused suggests shutting down the programs is unlikely to cause major problems, analysts say.

Dealerweb is a wholesale unit of Tradeweb Markets, a large fixed-income electronic trading platform company. FINRA found that Dealerweb failed to correctly report 147,000 trades.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Fed Chair Jerome Powell to end most emergency lending programs created earlier this year, including the MLF, on Dec. 31.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell said President-elect Biden will move on a pandemic relief bill early in his presidency and a robust infrastructure package would soon follow. Others see scaled-down aid and an upward partisan battle.

No new negotiations are on the horizon as Washington lawmakers prepare to take a one-week hiatus from their lame-duck next week for Thanksgiving.