Munis

An indefinite closure of New York retail businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic added credit pressure on revenue bonds issued for the state’s largest mall.

The agency is scrutinizing recent deals involving credit-card receivables from private specialty finance companies that issue general-purpose and private-label retail cards to a near-prime/non-prime customer base.

About $474M in bonds backed by aircraft leases managed by GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) has been downgraded, tied to the increasingly poor financial health of several foreign airlines from the COVID-19 shutdown in global air traffic.

Hertz and Avis will likely each have to seek to relief from lenders – including asset-backed securities investors that make up the bulk of funding for both companies’ fleets, Moody’s stated in research reports.

Moody’s Investors Service has placed hundreds of non-senior U.S. CLO tranches under review for downgrade, affecting 358 broadly syndicated loan-backed portfolios as Moody’s measures the ongoing economic shocks of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Fed's actions are designed to ensure the flow of credit to midsize businesses and state and local governments hit hard by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fitch Ratings has placed subordinate notes on two U.S. collateralized loan obligations on notice for potential downgrades, contemplating a ratings action that has not previously occurred for a post-crisis CLO.

Dramatic Fed intervention may steady some markets, but unless something changes — and, judging by the last two weeks, it very well could — the central bank won’t be there to save fallen angels. Which brave investors will step up?

The credit watch involves single-borrower securitizations of commercial mortgages for high-priced resorts in Florida and Hawaii.

While collapsing market prices do not present immediate worries for CLO managers, the prospect of future downgrades and defaults becomes more problematic.