CHICAGO – Illinois general obligation bond prices plummeted and yields soared in the U.S. municipal market today, a day after a federal judge ordered the cash-strapped state to find more money to pay Medicaid providers, Reuters reported Thursday.
Yields on bonds due in 2024 climbed to 5.15 percent in secondary market trading, according to Municipal Market Data, while Illinois' so-called credit spread over MMD's benchmark triple-A scale jumped to as much as 380 basis points.
"It's a real meltdown today," MMD analyst Randy Smolik said.
He added that spreads over the scale widened by as much as 100 basis points for some bonds issued by Illinois, which already had the widest spreads among the 50 states.
More at Crain's HERE.
