Buy side

As state and local governments struggled in the recession, debt grew faster than both revenues and expenditures, climbing 22% from $2.4 trillion in 2007 to $2.9 trillion in 2012.

Spending on fuel for cars and trucks in 2015 is expected to reach the lowest level in 11 years due to falling pump prices and more efficient engines, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Moody's Investors Service sees a stable outlook for public power in 2015, as an improving U.S. economy outweighs slowing demand for electricity.

Volume will dip considerably low this week as issuers are expected to pare back financings to roughly a third of the early Christmas bonanza they delivered last week.

A privately operated immigration detention center in La Salle, County, Texas, will receive no revenues while closed for repairs, according to a disclosure notice to bondholders.

For the week ended Dec. 11, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, dropped three basis points to 4.32% from 4.35%.

Ratings on many of California's cities continue to recover from the recession, but credit rating distribution in the state remains uneven, according to a report from Standard & Poor's.

Radian Group Inc. is seeking to sell bond insurer Radian Asset and Assured Guaranty or MBIA may turn out to be the buyer.

The Kentucky Pension Oversight Board will finalize recommendations for new funding and tighter control of the state's pension systems at its Dec. 16 meeting.

The Bond Buyer’s 20-Bond GO Index of 20-year general obligation yields dropped to its lowest level in at least six months as it fell 11 basis points in the week ended Dec. 3 to 3.83% from 3.94% in the previous week.

Moody's Investors Service said Tuesday it is maintaining its negative outlook on the non-profit health care sector for 2015, warning that key economic and financial conditions are expected to remain weak.

Long-term municipal bond issuance rose for the fourth month in a row as volume increased 15.3% in November.

Municipal strategists say intermediate securities, premium bonds with short calls, and investment-grade paper, top their holiday wish lists of must-have securities as 2014 winds down, while they forecast continued steady performance by municipals into early 2015.

The weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, was unchanged at 4.40% in the week ending Nov. 25.

New municipal deals will be almost as scarce as Thanksgiving leftovers this week when traders, underwriters, and investors take a holiday hiatus and volume dips to less than $1 billion.

Kentucky's Paducah Power System board will be asked to take bankruptcy off the table as an option to deal with its struggling finances, said manager Mark Crisson, because the system is solvent.

The weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, fell two basis points to 4.39% in the week ending Nov. 20 from 4.41% in the previous week.

JEA, north Florida's largest utility, rejected a plan by Jacksonville's mayor to contribute $400 million to the city's pension liability, but agreed to consider negotiating a smaller amount and may issue pension obligation bonds.

Volume is forecast to more than double to nearly $7.9 billion this week as Connecticut makes its way to the helm of the primary market with its $550 million offering of general obligation bonds.

Innovative businessman James A. Lebenthal — whose family was often referred to as the first family of New York City municipal bonds — is widely credited as the first broker to use the media to sell tax-exempt investments to individual investors. He coined such phrases in his ads as "bonds are my babies" and championed the debt of projects like the World Trade Center.