Buy side

Rhode Island selected Invesco and Ascencus to manage its $7 billion CollegeBoundfund 529 program, replacing AllianceBernstein.

Municipal bond funds reported inflows for the seventh week in a row, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.

In the week ended Nov. 19, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index fell to 4.35% from 4.38% in the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

Municipal market trading plummeted to $551 billion in the third quarter, the lowest level since at least 2005 when the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board began recording the statistics, according to the board.

Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White on Wednesday declined to take a position on a bill that would increase hedge fund reporting in the wake of fund purchases of Puerto Rico’s debt, saying it has both pros and cons..

The 32-year-old national fixed-income shop First Empire Securities has begun underwriting new-issue municipal bonds it could offer to its institutional clients and opened a Chicago office.

California’s treasurer has launched an open data website that he says will make it easier to analyze $1.5 trillion in debt issued in the state since 1984.

Unrated Scranton, Pa., is taking steps to regain the good graces of the capital markets, said its mayor and business administrator.

Citigroup municipal strategist George Friedlander is delivering a presentation about how evolving technology is impacting the public finance industry at the Nov. 19 meeting of the Philadelphia Area Municipal Analyst Society (PhAMAS).

EAX Trading pulled the plug last week on a two-year effort to launch a municipal bond electronic trading platform aimed at the secondary market.

Pennsylvania's prolonged budget impasse is a credit negative for school districts and community colleges that rely on state-aid distributions, said Moody's.

Municipal bond funds reported inflows for the sixth week in a row, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.

In the week ended Nov. 12, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index rose to 4.38% from 4.35% from the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

Rating changes are likely for hundreds of credits as Moody's Investors Service prepares a methodology revision for moral obligations, lease-revenue bonds and other appropriation-backed credits.

The municipal high yield sector, slumping since before the second quarter, started to rally in October.

The New Jersey Legislature has scheduled a "fact-finding" hearing to explore legalizing marijuana as a way to reform drug laws while also raising new revenue.

The SEC recently approved a new set of rules that would likely alter the behavior of one of the municipal bond market's largest, and one of the most influential, investor segments of the industry — mutual funds. Surprisingly, the industry appears not to be considering its full implications outside of a few closed circles.

Fitch Ratings deemed the reorganization of Clark County School District, Nevada's largest school and the nation's fifth biggest, to be a mid-term credit risk in a report describing the experience of a Utah school district that underwent a break-up in 2010.

Allen Park, Mich. received a positive review from Standard & Poor's for its advancing efforts to shed some its troublesome $26.3 million of debt issued for a failed film studio, with an upgrade for the still speculative-grade credit.

Moody's Investors Service had more upgrades than downgrades in the third quarter of 2015, and the upgrades also affected a larger dollar amount of debt than its downgrades.