Buy side

State and local governments amassed their biggest-ever debt burden during the fourth quarter, meeting demand from retail buyers and a broadened investor base driven by federal stimulus programs.

Most of The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined slightly this week, as some firmness continued to permeate a mostly unchanged municipal market.

Continuing the recent outflow activity, tax-exempt money market funds lost $2.55 billion and finished with $377.04 billion for the week ending March 8, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

A debate is brewing in the municipal bond exchange-traded fund industry.

Investors continue to stuff municipal bond mutual funds with cash, supporting bond prices even as by some measures they are nearly as expensive as they have ever been.

For banks that built up significant portfolios in the municipal interest rate swap business, it may be time to consider what to do when the customer isn’t always right.

After a one-week postponement due to stalled legislation, California will make its way to market with a $2 billion sale of various-purpose general obligation bonds.

State and local governments are getting very little help from earnings on their investments at the precise time they need it most.

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined this week, as the tax-exempt market firmed slightly in each of the week’s sessions.

After a rare week of inflows, tax-exempt money market funds returned to negative territory in the week ending March 1, losing $2.15 billion and settling at $379.60 billion in total assets, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Short-term interest rates near zero are a bonanza for the closed-end fund industry. If only they lasted forever.

Nuveen Investments last month proposed the latest in a proliferation of investment vehicles devoted to Build America Bonds: a BAB closed-end fund.

SAN JUAN — Nearly one year after Puerto Rico implemented its fiscal reconstruction plan to reduce operating costs, generate more tax revenue, and curtail borrowing, investors are both optimistic and cautious.

After digesting more than $6 billion of new volume last week, the municipal market is again expected to make room for an additional $6.28 billion in estimated new supply planned this week, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

Money continued to flood municipal bond mutual funds at a steady pace last week, as continuing concerns about state and local government credit and a hike in the Federal Reserve’s discount rate did little to deter investors.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined this week, as the municipal market spent much of the last week either in unchanged or slightly firmer territory.

After a seven weeks in the desert, tax-exempt money market funds finally saw a modest trickle of inflows in the week ending Feb. 22. The gain of $187.7 million, raising total assets to $381.75 billion, marked only the second time this year that the funds were on the positive side of the ledger, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Oppenheimer & Co. agreed to buy back from clients tens of millions of dollars of auction-rate securities under settlements with two states announced yesterday.The New York-based investment bank was accused by New York and Massachusetts of marketing ARS as safe, liquid alternatives to cash, without explaining the risks.

For anyone still not convinced that Build America Bonds are transforming state and local government finance, behold a municipal bond mutual fund that has filed a prospectus in French.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission formally released a series of final changes to its Rule 2a-7 on money market funds Tuesday aimed at boosting the resilience of funds during market crises, and set a March 5 effective date for them.