Buy side

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

The municipal market started Wednesday morning slightly weaker in tone as dealers worked to unload some of their balances.

Just because the household sector saw a material decline in its holdings at year end, it didn't mean the retail crowd snubbed its nose at municipal securities altogether — it just shifted its access to the debt.

Six weeks after pulling its last bond sale, Illinois plans a full court press with investors and will drop a bidding feature that had dampened the interest of some broker-dealers as it prepares to competitively sell $800 million of debt.

The Chicago City Council will take up ordinances as soon as Wednesday authorizing up to $1.65 billion of O'Hare International Airport debt that will raise new money for the airport's $8 billion expansion.

Fewer governors have been focusing on pension reform in their state of the state addresses this year, but most who propose reform follow through, according to Loop Capital Markets.

Many prominent, heavily leveraged municipal bond closed-end funds saw sharp declines to their NAVs late last week thanks to seasonal factors, such as lighter cash flows, heavier supply and lower demand, mixed in with the approaching tax season.

To no surprise in the bond markets, teetering Harrisburg, Pa., will miss $5.2 million worth of payments on general obligation bonds and notes due March 15.

U.S. banks enjoyed more exposure to municipal bonds at the end of 2012 fueled by increased profitability and revenues looking for a home in the face of declining commercial loan generation and the imposition of new federal regulations, according to municipal experts.

A $2.5 billion California general obligation financing will thunder into the municipal market at a time when volume is expected to inch up over $8 billion in what is one of the largest one-week supply scenarios so far this year -- however the extra supply may force underwriters to bump yields in order to get investors' attention on the heels of last Thursday and Friday's weakness, according to one market expert.

Barclays is warning that if a Build America Bond subsidy payment is reduced under sequestration and this triggers an extraordinary redemption provision, the issuer may be able to call those BABs anytime, even years later when market changes make the call affordable.