Buy side

Illinois took its second credit blow this week when Moody’s Investors Service dropped the state’s general obligation debt into the triple-B category Thursday as the state’s prospects for tackling its budget and pension mess dim amid the four-month-old budget stalemate.

Allen Park, Mich., has delayed the settlement date for its purchase of $11.2 million of the $26.3 million of bonds offered to tender from a troubled issue for a failed movie studio project.

Local credits in Michigan will be hurt if a proposal to give their unlimited tax general obligation bonds a statutory first lien falls through, Fitch Ratings said in a special report.

The relationship between local government and its workforce is an important indicator of the strength of a municipalities’ credit, Fitch Ratings said in a report released on Wednesday.

Investors should brace for further deterioration of Illinois’ already battered bond ratings after this week’s Fitch Ratings downgrade.

Municipal bond funds reported inflows for the second week in a row, according to Lipper data released on Thursday. Weekly reporting funds experienced $520.807 million of inflows in the week ended Oct. 14, after inflows of $714.012 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, stayed the same at 4.37% from the week ended Oct. 8.

Officials at major U.S. ports, speaking at an infrastructure summit, said they are receptive to exploring private-public partnerships as a funding source to meet infrastructure needs.

The District of Columbia’s recent institutional investor conference is likely to lead to increased demand for its bonds, the city’s chief financial officer said.

Even as funding ratios for U.S. state pensions stabilize, state and local government workers are retiring at a higher rate than new employees are being hired and this is putting additional pressure on their pension systems, Fitch Ratings said in a report released on Thursday.

Christopher Brogdon, who was at the center of more than a dozen problematic healthcare municipal bond deals for which at least $2 million was unaccounted for, will resign from the board of healthcare firm AdCare.

BMO Global Asset Management has hired three municipal veterans to its municipal fixed income portfolio management division.

Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming are the states most "in the crosshairs" as energy revenues look to remain low well into next year, Fitch Ratings said.

An attorney for Jefferson County, Ala., has asked an appellate court to consider the analysis of a federal judge who dismissed the final appeal in Detroit’s bankruptcy case.

Municipal bond funds stayed on a fund flow see-saw, reporting inflows for the latest week.

In the week ended Oct. 8, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index fell one basis point to 4.37% from 4.38% in the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

Kroll has weighed in on Chicago’s 2016 budget, praising the spending plan for a key property tax increase but warning of unresolved challenges and one-shot revenue boosts.

Some municipal bond strategists are adding risk to boost fourth-quarter yields following the Federal Reserve Board’s decision on Sept. 17 to keep rates unchanged, while other are playing a more defensive game.

In the midst of a spate of municipal bankruptcies and a credit crisis in Puerto Rico, a report from Kroll Bond Rating Agency highlighted a divergence among the credit rating services.

Municipal bond funds experienced another turn around and reported outflows, after recording inflows last week, according to Lipper data released on Thursday.