Buy side

Ipreo and Morningstar Inc. are partnering to supply Morningstar's fund ownership data to users of Ipreo's Bigdough contact database, the companies said earlier this week.

Earlier this month, the New York Times op-ed page featured, side by side, two very smart people presenting very different arguments.

As the spring reinvestment season gets underway, investors expecting June 1 coupon and maturity payments will have no shortage of supply this week.

Cash is flooding into municipal bond mutual funds at a record pace as investors become more comfortable taking risk and spiriting money out of safe havens.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts presented awards to four individuals, including Tom Weyl from Eaton Vance Management and J. Ben Watkins 3d, Florida's bond division director, as well as a law firm, during its annual conference in Seattle earlier this month.

Tax-exempt money market funds took a step into positive territory for the week ending May 11 as they gained $742.9 million to settle at $468.67 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

With Build America Bonds at the forefront of the municipal market, Fitch Ratings is concentrating on the treatment of the federal subsidy and bond structure as two key credit considerations in its ongoing analysis of the taxable debt, according to a report being released today.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer’s yield indexes declined this week, as tax-exempts were unchanged to firmer in all the week’s sessions.

Municipal bond mutual funds attracted another giant slug of cash from investors last week as the industry remained a magnet for retail investor interest.

Investors hungry for more taxable Build America Bonds will have another crack at a relatively sizable offering this week when the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority issues up to $500 million of senior-priority revenue bonds amid an estimated slate of $5.6 billion of total new-issue volume, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

The municipal market perked up this week, leaving The Bond Buyer’s yield indexes mostly lower. This comes after a period of lackluster trading that had settled in after a mid-April rally.

Tax-exempt money market funds remained in negative territory again this week as total assets declined by $646.9 million to $467.92 billion for the week ending May 4, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com

For investors worried the U.S. Treasury might revoke its promised subsidies to Build America Bonds, Ann-Ellen Hornidge offers some free legal advice: relax.

Fidelity Investments, Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group manage wealth for the largest percentage of U.S. millionaires, according to a survey by Fidelity.

The Reserve Primary Fund broke the buck in September, but despite fears to the contrary, it has not broken the back of the money market fund industry. Click here to read the American Banker article.

The rush of state and local governments into the taxable bond market has prompted reports of significant savings. Just how much savings is a contentious - and complicated - question.

A trio of sizable financings from issuers in California, as well as a large Georgia offering, will be the largest deals to usher in the first full trading week of May as the primary market anticipates an estimated $5.46 billion in total new issuance this week, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer. The issuance comes on the heels of a revised total of $3.62 billion last week, according to Thomson Reuters.

Investors handed over another fat slug of cash to municipal bond mutual funds last week as money continued to flood out of safe havens and into higher-yielding assets.

With outflows totaling $5.94 billion, tax-exempt money market funds settled at $468.57 billion in total assets for the week ending April 27, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Reports that the municipal bond market found its savior may have been premature.