Markets

Former Massachusetts assistant treasurer Colin MacNaught has launched tech company BondLink to help muni issuers manage debt management programs.

In the week ended May 19, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index fell two basis points to 3.88% from 3.90% in the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings both downgraded Connecticut's general obligation bonds to AA-minus from AA in advance of the state's $511 million sale.

An unusually weak economic recovery is putting the credit ratings of an increasing number of states in jeopardy.

Fitch Ratings said its withdrawal of its ratings on U.S. tobacco asset-securitization bonds, which affects over 40 tobacco issues from New York to California and Michigan to the U.S. Virgin Island, was prompted by uncertainty regarding changes in the terms it views as risks in the Master Settlement Agreement.

Municipal bond market participants may agree that bank loan disclosure falls short but there's little consensus about how to improve it amid heightened regulatory scrutiny.

German Pellets Texas LLC and Texas Pellets Inc. filed petitions for Chapter 11 reorganization last month with $184.7 million of tax-exempt industrial development bonds outstanding.

Puerto Rico will need help from Washington to maintain future market access and avoid a descent into "third-world" economic conditions, municipal bond fund managers said.

For the 32nd straight week, municipal bond funds reported inflows, according to Lipper data released Thursday. Weekly reporting funds saw $1.212 billion of inflows in the week ended May 11, after inflows of $709.727 million in the previous week, Lipper said.

The weekly average yield to maturity of The Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, fell three basis points to 3.90% from 3.93% in the previous week.