Markets

One would expect that a socially conscious municipal bond mutual fund devoted to investing in projects that create jobs would consider Build America Bonds a welcome addition to the market.

While not the most scientific measure of foreign interest in municipal debt since the advent of Build America Bonds, Sylvan Feldstein, in his keynote address Wednesday at the National Federation of Municipal Analysts annual conference in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M., noted more foreigners buying copies of the Handbook of Municipal Bonds.

Among the many changes to the municipal bond market wrought by the financial crisis, one may be the factors that drive muni mutual fund returns.

Long-term municipal bond yields fell across the board this week, according to the Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes. The strengthening did not keep pace with Treasury yields, however, which fell much more sharply.

Outflows from tax-exempt money market funds for the week ending May 3 were $1.92 billion, nearly half of last week’s amount, leaving assets at $356.73 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. — The short-term fiscal outlook for states is bleak. The long-term outlook is even bleaker.

It is not often one hears someone nicknamed “Wild” Bill exhorting patience.

Fitch Ratings completed its recalibration of municipal bond ratings on Friday, raising their marks on more than 2,200 credits, according to its updated scale.

State and local governments spent less in the first quarter of 2010 on infrastructure projects and new equipment despite a windfall of federal aid, figures released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Friday showed.