Buy side

Puerto Rico faces a fight from one of its biggest bondholders as it seeks to reduce debt service payments for several years.

Puerto Rico's insolvency is a game changer that will have a deep and far-reaching impact on the market, municipal professionals said Tuesday at a Bond Buyer conference in Chicago.

Muni experts expect outperformance by high credit-quality issues, a decline in refundings, troubled credits to dominate the headlines, and the Fed to raise rates in the second half of the year.

Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla may have worsened relations with traditional municipal investors when he acknowledged long-standing concerns that the commonwealth cannot pay its $72 billion in municipal bond debts.

Municipal volume is forecast to drop 45% as a holiday shortened week brings the second quarter to a close.

For the eighth week in a row, municipal bond funds reported outflows, bringing to 11 out of 26 weeks this year the funds have seen cash withdrawals.

For the week ended June 25, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, increased one basis point to 4.46%, from 4.45% the previous week.

Total net tax-supported debt fell for the first time in 28 years in 2014, a Moody’s report found.

A Virginia judge approved a mediated deal June 22 that will keep Virginia's Briar College open for another year and release endowment funds.

Covenant violations on lines of credit and poor operations caused Howard University's bond rating to fall with the possibility of the rating declining more if the university cannot fix operations that have been running a deficit in recent years.

Los Angeles’ $1.39 billion of Series 2015 tax and revenue anticipation notes and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ $939 million GO bond sales lead the way for a week that is projected to see $8.7 billion, according to Ipreo and The Bond Buyer. That is up from the revised $6.5 billion that the market saw the week of June 15, according to Thomson Reuters.

Analysts at BlackRock Inc. say municipal demand will rebound once a combination of budgetary and quarter-end pressures subside at the end of June.

The weekly average yield to maturity of The Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, decreased two basis points to 4.45% for the week ended June 18 from 4.47% in the previous week.

For the seventh week in a row, municipal bond funds reported outflows, bringing to 10 out of 25 weeks this year the funds have suffered cash withdrawals.

Volatile muni yields coupled with the trepidation surrounding a Federal Open Market Committee meeting seem to have put a damper on new issuance as volume for the coming week is estimated at $6.72 billion, according to Ipreo and The Bond Buyer.

For the week ended June 11, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, increased five basis points to 4.47% from 4.42% from the previous week.

For the sixth week in a row, municipal bond funds reported outflows, bringing to nine out of 24 weeks this year the funds have suffered cash withdrawals.

Fund manager Andy Chorlton evaluates market indicators to see where interest rates could go as he seeks to maximize after-tax returns.

Atlanta-based Asset Preservation Advisors recommends that investors remain “highly selective” when purchasing Kentucky’s bonds due to the state’s high pension liability.

Hartford Funds is launching two new municipal bond funds to expand its suite of products