Buy side

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes were flat to lower the week ended March 27.

A solid base in city and regional economic forecasting and planning laid an atypical foundation for Michael Brooks, senior portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein, to build a career in municipal bonds.

A bankruptcy court hearing is slated next week on settlement agreement between American Airlines Inc. and holders of its $1.4 billion of New York City airport debt.

Automated programs for the bidding process haven't transformed trading in the municipal bond market as they have in equities, but they've been making noticeable inroads in the past few years.

Municipal market issuers have noticeably scaled back new financings this Good Friday holiday shortened week, giving the market a chance to catch its collective breath after digesting a recent glut of new volume.

Investors were down on the municipal bond market for a third straight week as $261 million poured out of weekly reporting muni bond mutual funds for the week of March 20.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes were narrowly mixed the week ended March 21.

After more than 50 years in the municipal bond business, Richard "Dick" O'Brien, of the regional brokerage firm Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas, is ready to step down and spend more time with his family … and his farm.

After its downgrade of MBIA Insurance Corp., Standard & Poor's has downgraded six MBIA-insured housing bond issues.

Tax-exempt money market funds reversed a recent spate of outflows -- yet gained just a scant $24.2 million -- as total net assets barely inched up to $276.65 billion in the week ended March 18, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Moody's Investors Service said it expects to finalize its approach to making adjustments to the pension data reported by U.S. state and local governments in April.

U.S. credit implications remain uncertain following conflicting budget proposals last week, according to Moody's Investors Service.

U.S. Bancorp announced Monday that its subsidiary, U.S. Bank, has agreed to acquire Deutsche Bank's municipal bond trustee business.

The settlement between some states and tobacco manufacturers is a credit positive for those states and their related tobacco securitizations, Fitch Ratings said in a report Friday.

While Central Falls, RI, and Pittsburgh see light at the end of their tunnels, other tales of municipal distress from Harrisburg to California are much messier.

Medicaid and Medicare funding cuts under the new federal health care law could force states to choose whether to compensate hospitals with their own dollars or let hospitals' credit quality decline, Moody's said.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw outflows for a second straight week, at $133 million, as the market absorbed a large calendar with concessions.

Tax-exempt money market funds lost $2.17 billion and total net assets settled at $276.62 billion in the week ended March 11.

Some market participants believe the recent outflows from municipal bond mutual funds could be a sign of the "great muni rotation," while others believe such a rotation is unlikely to occur anytime soon.

The municipal bond market is weakening by slow accretion. A second day of California GOs and Empire State Development Corporation paper have kept market participants busy and pushed up yields incrementally