Wall Street was in for a busy week, as investors digested numerous economic reports, oil price moves, and the start of the first earnings season of 2015. Monday saw lower oil prices, following Goldman Sachs' lowering its three month outlook; WTI prices were down to $46.07 per barrel - the lowest price since 2009. Alcoa kicked off earnings season on a positive note with better than expected results reported after the closing bell on Monday. The big U.S. banks reported later, with predominantly lower earnings and revenues compared to last year's fourth quarter results. December's retail sales results were released on Wednesday morning, coming in at a disappointing 0.9% drop. In other retail news, Best Buy reported higher holiday season sales numbers, but offered a low sales outlook, while Target announced that it will closing all of its Canadian stores. Initial jobless claims were released Thursday morning, coming in at 319,000, versus the estimate of 290,000. Friday morning saw Wall Street make some gains, as oil prices moved above $50. The yield on 10-Year Treasuries dropped throughout the week, after starting at 1.92 on Monday and closing out Thursday at 1.77. Below, we look at all of Moody's municipal bond upgrades and downgrades from the past week.

Upgrades

• City of Menasha, WI: Moody's upgraded this city to Baa2 from Ba2. The Baa2 rating reflects the city's moderating debt burden and the June 2014 sale of the steam utility plant that was related to the city's 2009 default. The Baa2 rating also incorporates the city's adequate financial position, the city's location in a stable regional economy with some concentration in manufacturing, as well as the city's 2009 default on two series of Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs) which resulted in a 75% recovery ratio for investors.
• College Township, PA: Moody's upgraded this township to Aa3 from A1. The Aa3 rating reflects the township's solid financial position, modest debt burden, and stable, moderately sized tax base.
• City of Kettering, OH: Moody's upgraded this city to Aa1 from Aa2. The upgrade to Aa1 reflects the city's strong financial management practices, sizable General Fund reserves, as well as over $40 million of additional liquidity available in the city's Capital Projects Fund. The rating additionally reflects the city's moderately sized tax base located near the City of Dayton (Aa2 stable), moderate debt position, and above average exposure to unfunded pension liabilities based on participation in two statewide cost sharing plans.
• Village of Bensenville, IL: Moody's upgraded this village to Aa3 from A1. The Aa3 rating reflects the village's stable financial operations with a substantial increase in reserve levels following a settlement from the Chicago O'Hare Airport Enterprise (A2 stable) expansion. Also incorporated into the rating is the village's moderately-sized tax base, average socioeconomic profile, above average debt profile, and manageable pension burden.

Downgrades

• CITGO Petroleum Corporation: Moody's downgraded this corporation's rating to B1 from B3. In downgrading PDVSA's ratings to equal those of the government, Moody's acknowledges the state oil company's substantial oil and gas resources, among the largest in the world, and that the company to date has never defaulted on its debt obligations. However, PDVSA's on-balance-sheet debt obligations have increased to USD 49.4 billion as of its latest June 30, 2014 interim financial statements from USD 39.3 billion on year earlier.
• City of Nevada, MO: Moody's downgraded this city's long term issuer rating to A3 from A2. Concurrently, Moody's has downgraded to Baa1 from A3 the rating on the city's outstanding certificates of participation. The A3 issuer rating incorporates the city's modestly-sized and concentrated tax base, below average resident wealth levels, narrowing reserves due to ongoing transfers to the city's Parks Fund, reliance on economically sensitive revenues, average debt, and low pension burden. The Baa1 COPs rating reflects the underlying credit characteristics inherent in the city's A3 issuer rating, as well as the risk of non-appropriation and the essential nature of the projects financed by the COPs (new police and fire facilities as well as other municipal facilities).
• Loyola University, LA: Moody's downgraded this university to A3 from A2. The downgrade to A3 reflects Loyola University's continued operating deficits which will be difficult to reverse in the short term. The university is materially reliant on student generated revenue (75% of Moody's adjusted FY 2014 operating revenue) and total enrollment has declined each of the last two fall semesters for a total 10% loss.
• Harrisonburg Redevelopment & Housing Authority, VA: Moody's downgraded this housing authority to B3 from B2. The downgrade is based on expected loss estimates. A revenue insufficiency is projected on 8/1/2019 due to a mismatch between the maturity of the credit-enhanced mortgage on May 1, 2019 and final bond maturity on February 1, 2020.