New York City’s five pensions beat investment targets in the last fiscal year, propelled by a record-breaking U.S. stock market. The city’s pensions funds for police officers, fire fighters, teachers, civil employees and school personnel, with a combined $274 billion in assets, returned 10% in the year through June, beating their 7% target, according to

Municipals were steady, underperforming U.S. Treasuries after the Federal Reserve held rates, as expected. Equities ended up. Wednesday was about setting market participants up for a policy change in September, said Jeff MacDonald, executive vice president and head of fixed-income strategies at Fiduciary Trust International. The muni yield curve has “remained stubbornly inverted” throughout most

Fitch Ratings upgraded Chicago and Cook County ahead of the city’s planned sale of $643 million general obligation bonds and the county’s $168.2 million of sales tax revenue bonds. Chicago’s issuer default and GO debt rating were bumped to A-minus from BBB-plus and the city’s sales tax securitization bonds were raised to AAA from AA-plus

Municipals were little changed Tuesday as U.S. Treasuries were firmer and equities were mixed toward the end of the session. Muni yields remain near levels seen at the start of summer last year, said Tom Kozlik, managing director and head of public policy and municipal strategy at HilltopSecurities. Yields may move lower after the Federal

Connecticut sold a routine $214 million general obligation deal last week, with Wells Fargo placing the winning bid. Although the deal was unremarkable, Assistant Treasurer for Debt Management Bettina Bronisz made sure the occasion didn’t go unnoticed.  “She invited all the interns and other members of our executive staff to participate and learn about it

Kim Olsan joined NewSquare Capital last week as a senior fixed-income portfolio manager.  The 30-year industry veteran said she hopes to bring her broker-dealer background and deep knowledge of municipal bonds to the firm.  Olsan said she looks forward to “interacting directly with advisors and investors to grow their municipal footprint and expose them to

Former BlackRock employee Dave Antonelli has joined fixed-income investment management technology provider IMTC’s sales team as a strategic account executive. Antonelli spent more than 20 years at BlackRock as an institutional fixed-income multi-sector portfolio manager and has experience with managing institutional and retail portfolios and taxable retail separately managed account models, according to a press