Buy side

AUSTIN — Not yet a year after Build America Bonds began to lift municipal debt issuance to its second-highest volume on record, issuers and brokers are finding that they must commit more time to educating potential investors who make up an increasingly diverse base of buyers, experts told The Bond Buyer’s Texas Public Finance Conference yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will recommend making permanent the Build America Bonds program in its fiscal 2011 budget proposal Monday, a Treasury spokesperson said Friday night.

Why try to match the market when you can beat it?

Issuers in New York and Massachusetts are headed to the primary market with large financings this week earmarked for transportation, environmental, and education purposes as part of a $4.11 billion in expected new volume, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

The pace of new money flooding into municipal bond mutual funds appears to be picking up again after a lull.

Retail investors have much less apprehension about the municipal bond market heading into 2010 than they had at the start of 2009, according to market participants.

All The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes rose this week, as tax-exempts weakened in nearly all the past few sessions, particularly on the long end of the curve.

After yield-hungry investors yanked nearly $7.7 billion from tax-exempt money market funds last week, outflows slowed to $2.65 billion the week ending Jan. 25, leaving total assets at $390.97 billion, according to the Money Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday voted 4 to 1 to approve a series of changes to its Rule 2a-7 on money market funds aimed at boosting the resilience of funds during market crises, and promised to move forward with additional rules in the future.

The Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp. and Illinois will each bring billion-dollar financings to the primary market this week that will contribute to a $5.47 billion slate in estimated new volume, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

Investors last week handed municipal bond mutual funds the puniest slug of cash in nine months as the cascade of new money continues to moderate.

UBS Global Asset Management is surrendering one of its municipal bond closed-end funds following a coup by activist shareholders.

Cash hurts.That painful truth is a primary pillar supporting municipal bonds today.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined this week, as the municipal market carried a firmer tone throughout most of the week, despite little day-to-day movement.

In an effort to help educate investors, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board yesterday issued a “fact sheet” containing seven questions they can ask their financial professionals when considering investing in municipal bonds.

Standard & Poor’s downgrade of California last week raises a crucial question: does the Golden State’s debt at some point become no longer appropriate for conservative retail investors?

This week’s largest financings include deals in the health care, transportation, and environmental sectors that are expected to price as part of an estimated $5.44 billion in volume, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes were flat to slightly lower this week as the primary market took center stage with over $9 billion sold, in the most active week of new issuance so far in the new year.

Matt Dalton is willing to buy the debt of a bankrupt borrower — and he can’t find any for sale at a suitable price.

Only in municipal bonds.Matt Dalton is willing to buy the debt of a bankrupt borrower — and he can’t find any for sale at a suitable price.