Patrick McGee

NEW YORK – Yields in the municipal market were dramatically firmer Wednesday amid light to moderate activity in the secondary market.

Municipal yields firmed by a basis point Tuesday amid light activity in the secondary market. The strengthening was attributed to municipals following the Treasury market, which saw broad gains following the Federal Reserve’s afternoon monetary policy statement.

NEW YORK – Municipal yields firmed by a basis point Tuesday amid light activity in the secondary market. The strengthening was attributed to municipals following the Treasury market, which saw broad gains following the Federal Reserve’s afternoon monetary policy statement.

NEW YORK – Secondary municipal market activity remained light in early afternoon trading, as the focus is on new deals in the primary market. Yields remain flat from yesterday, while Treasuries have strengthened.

Activity in the municipal market was light Monday as traders awaited guidance from new supply expected to be issued later in the week.

NEW YORK – Activity in the municipal market was light Monday as traders await guidance from new supply expected to be issued later in the week.

Yields in the municipal market followed the strength of Treasuries on Friday morning but then let go of earlier gains and closed the week unchanged from Thursday levels.

NEW YORK – Yields in the municipal market followed the strength of Treasuries Friday morning but then pushed back from earlier gains and closed the week unchanged from Thursday levels.

New York-based investment bank Jefferies & Co. announced Tuesday that it has added two professionals to its 90-member municipal securities roster.

Piper Jaffray & Co. announced Monday that 25-year municipal industry veteran Jim Ridenour will be returning to the firm Oct. 1 after a 10-year hiatus. He will be based in Minneapolis and will lead fixed-income middle market sales as a managing director.

Knight Capital Group Inc. announced that Knight BondPoint, its desktop point-and-click trading platform, will now give clients access to disclosure data, research, and data services published by DPC Data.

Assured Guaranty’s chief executive officer said while the outlook for new municipal bond insurers isn’t good, the industry’s alleged problems with existing portfolios are overblown and unsupported by recent data.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. was founded in 1869 but only this week will the firm begin targeting the mainstream retail-buyer base for municipal bonds.

With hopes to become the next minority-owned underwriter to move up in the rankings, Oakland-based municipal firm Blaylock Robert Van LLC added industry veteran A. Christopher St. James to the firm’s West Coast public finance team.

The dearth of tax-exempt issuance and exodus of investors from volatile equity markets have translated into lower yields across the curve in the traditional municipal market, prompting some analysts to question whether long-bond buyers will continue to assume the duration risk for such minimal gains.

Policyholders contesting bond insurer MBIA Inc.’s February 2009 restructuring will soon have their chance in court to try and overturn the decision that allowed the transformation to take place.

Record low yields failed to spur issuers to action in August, as total municipal volume fell 25.1% from a year ago, with issuance in nearly every sector declining in the taxable and tax-exempt markets.

The new municipal underwriting group at U.S. Bancorp Investments continues to expand its ranks, adding Leon Bijou as the group's in-house legal counsel last week and securing Bill Bingham to oversee fixed-rate trading this fall.

Deutsche Bank Securities Thursday confirmed the hiring of muni derivatives specialist Ryan Donovan as a director within the municipal capital markets group.

Moody's Investors Service reiterated Monday that the possible bankruptcy of Ambac Financial Group is unlikely to affect policyholders of its bond insurer subsidiary. In addition, policyholders will benefit from recent growth in the insurer’s statutory surplus, the rating agency said.