There are no happy surprises for the municipal bond market in the surprise budget reconciliation bill unveiled by Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin Wednesday night. As has been the case with the last several iterations, the legislation fails to include any muni market wishes, like tax-exempt advance refunding. And the bill continues to
Short-dated US government debt rallied on Thursday after data showing the American economy unexpectedly shrank in the second quarter prompted traders to trim expectations for Federal Reserve rate increases. Yields on two-year Treasury notes, which are sensitive to monetary policy expectations, dipped 0.1 percentage points to 2.86 per cent as the debt jumped in price.
Jim Magats, former PayPal executive who is being named CEO of the startup MX Photo: Tom Cook MX, the startup competing against Plaid to help connect financial institutions and fintech players, is naming PayPal executive Jim Magats its new CEO, CNBC has learned. Magats, a nearly two-decade PayPal veteran who was most recently senior vice
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced administrative actions and legislative proposals that are aimed at “protecting residents from the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement.” Saying ESG threatens the vitality of the American economy and economic freedom by targeting disfavored individuals and industries to advance what it calls a woke ideological agenda, DeSantis is proposing legislation
Walt Disney couldn’t dream up a rollercoaster to rival the curves that California’s fiscal policymakers have had to navigate over the past two decades. In an historically short time frame, the state experienced the 2000 energy crisis that forced out then-Gov. Gray Davis; paid off $7 billion of deficit bonds issued by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
The US economy shrank for a second consecutive quarter, meeting one of the common criteria for a technical recession and complicating the Federal Reserve’s push to stamp out soaring inflation with a string of aggressive rate rises. Data published by the commerce department on Thursday showed gross domestic product fell by 0.9 per cent on
The tap water in Ben Archard’s apartment in the Herne Hill neighbourhood of south London flows through toxic lead pipes, increasing the risk of brain damage to his children and prompting him to pay for bottled drinking water. Tests carried out by the local authority this year revealed that more than half of the 96
On the day the UK experienced its hottest day on record, people glued to their TV screens saw a row of burning houses. Rather than fretting like many of us did about the surreal sight of wildfires so close to central London, Mike Fox’s attention was on a power cable in the background of the
One day in 1956, the Irish civil servant TK Whitaker had a jolt when he saw the cover of Dublin Opinion magazine. An illustration showed an empty Ireland, beside the text “Shortly Available: Undeveloped Country, Unrivalled Opportunities, Magnificent Views, Political and Otherwise, Owners Going Abroad”. Ireland’s model of economic and emotional autarky had failed. Nearly
Massive, multimillion dollar mansions may seem de rigueur in Toronto’s tony Bridle Path neighborhood, but there are firsts among equals. A prime example of the top-tier estates for sale in the North York enclave is this 18,276-square-foot mansion and detached coach house set on two manicured acres. Iron gates open to a circular motor court
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has reinstated its dividend for the first time since 2020 after operating profits increased more than fivefold during the energy crisis, buoyed by higher revenues from its oil, gas and nuclear assets. The company, which is the biggest energy retailer in the UK, said on Thursday that it would
EDF has reported a record €5.3bn first-half loss and warned that the financial hit from outages at its nuclear plants would worsen in the months ahead, just as the French government prepares to take full control of the utility. The company on Thursday forecast that its output problems, exacerbated by unexpected shutdowns at some reactors
Shell has announced record profits for a second consecutive quarter and a $6bn share buyback scheme as the fallout from the war in Ukraine generates bumper earnings for the world’s oil and gas majors. Europe’s largest oil company posted adjusted earnings — the profit measure most closely tracked by analysts — of $11.5bn in the
Since the Federal Reserve in March embarked on what has become the fastest pace of interest rate rises since 1981, it has provided painstaking detail about its future plans to tighten monetary policy. On Wednesday, that changed, with chair Jay Powell announcing the US central bank would shy away from offering an official running commentary
Twitter is struggling with staff departures, falling morale and reduced spending by marketers as Elon Musk’s on-off pursuit of the social media company hits its $4.5bn-a-year advertising business. Company insiders, former staffers and ad industry executives have told the Financial Times that chief executive Parag Agrawal is leading an increasingly fraught effort to keep the
Beijing is seeking to mobilise up to Rmb1tn ($148bn) of loans for stalled property developments, in its most ambitious attempt to revive the debt-stricken sector and mollify home buyers who are boycotting mortgage repayments after lengthy construction delays. China’s property sector accounts for about one-third of total output in the world’s second-largest economy. The industry’s
Ford overcame supply chain challenges to report higher vehicle sales and reaffirm its outlook for the year, but is “actively looking” to offset costs as inflationary pressures mount. The automaker reported revenue of $40.2bn in the second quarter, a 50 per cent jump from the same period last year, thanks to a 35 per cent
Federal Reserve officials made history on Wednesday by hiking rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for the second straight month, delivering the most aggressive tightening in more than a generation to curb surging inflation, but risking a sharp blow to the economy. Policy makers, facing the hottest price pressures in 40 years, lifted the
Municipals were firmer following the Fed’s decision to hike rates another 75 basis points, while U.S. Treasuries rallied on the short end and equities ended up. Despite this being another “outsize rate increase” of 75 basis points, Brian Coulton, chief economist for Fitch Ratings, said “the Fed has still only raised interest rates back into
Taxable municipal issuance has plummeted this year as the shock of rising interest rates made the financing vehicle less enticing for issuers, both economically and psychologically. From becoming a replacement for tax-exempt advance refundings lost to 2017 tax law changes to broadening the investor base for munis, taxables have played a larger role in the
Gas and electricity bills for the most vulnerable households in Britain are predicted to soar to an average of £500 a month in January, stoking the cost of living crisis and increasing the pressure on the government to act to save millions of families from energy poverty. The warning from consultancy BFY Group came as