Buy side

A nearly $700 million Maryland general obligation sale will headline the primary market this week -- despite facing potential spending constraints -- and will be among several other Northeast issuers that will dominate the new-issue calendar following strong activity last Friday.

Standard & Poor's downgraded bond insurer National Public Finance Guarantee three notches to BB from BBB Thursday evening.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's historic decision Friday to take over the city of Detroit bodes well for the credit and for other local distressed governments, muni experts said, even as Snyder warned that all creditors might take have to take a loss.

The tax-exempt market ended February on a high note with a rally across the curve.

Although negative, the effects of sequestration on state and local governments will be gradual and issuers are mostly prepared, according to Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes were mixed the week ended Feb. 28.

Inflows to municipal bond mutual funds ticked up this week to $324 million, making it eight consecutive weeks in the red.

Long-term municipal bond issuance hit the brakes in February, as issuers floated 22% less in volume last month than they did over the same period in 2012.

Tax-exempt money market funds saw modest inflows as they reversed the recent outflow pattern.

Assured Guaranty Ltd. reported quarterly profits and announced that it plans to begin writing policies with its new municipal-only insurer, Municipal Assurance Corp., later this year.

With low interest rates, stagnant supply, and anticipated regulations, the market for variable rate demand obligations is in decline.

Scales tracking the municipal market may forecast lower yields across most of the spectrum of the curve Tuesday, but the scene for retail investors is a quiet one.

Moody's Investors Service has placed $354 million of outstanding debt from 40 issuers on review, direction uncertain, due to lack of information.

The long-term care credit market has stabilized, writes Jon Barasch of Interactive Data Corp. in this commentary.

Municipal bond yields, true to their habit of following Treasury yields with a noticeable lag, have started Tuesday lower, bestowing upon the market a stronger tenor.

The range of risks facing the higher education sector could lead to uneven credit performance in 2013, according to Standard & Poor's.

Short and selective. That is the fixed-income philosophy that Guy LeBas, director of fixed income strategy at Janney Montgomery Scott, is putting increased focus on in 2013 because of the predominance of interest-rate risk in the market.

Municipal bond investors have watched credit spreads in the market narrow considerably over the past three years. And they aren't expected to reverse course anytime over the next 12 months.

A leaden and lackluster municipal market shuffled into the afternoon Monday. While the retail order periods for some of the week's issuance seep in, market participants, particularly institutions, have been holding their fire in the secondary in anticipation of larger offers to come, giving the market a ponderous tone.

Chicago received 16 responses in its first market outreach to identify prospective bidders in a possible deal to privatize Midway International Airport, according to the city's chief financial officer Lois Scott.