Buy side

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes mostly fell this week as the Federal Reserve’s plan to support credit markets by buying Treasuries sparked a rally in state and local government debt.

The municipal bond market continued to grow during the fourth quarter in the face of a global credit crisis as retail investors flocked to high-quality state and local government debt.

Wisconsin is expected to thunder into the market a week early with up to $1.5 billion of state-appropriated securities that will refund outstanding 2002 tobacco bonds and deliver a substantial amount of paper to the Midwest market.

Congress hopes an expansion of the taxable municipal bond market will introduce new types of investors to state and local bonds.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds slowed again last week as the market continued to pummel state and local government bonds.

When institutional investors and price-evaluation services disagree, bet on the institutional investors.

The total assets of tax-exempt money market funds rose by $3.65 billion to $485.77 billion during the week ending March 9 — only the third time the funds have seen inflows since January, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The Securities Industry Financial Markets Association is phasing out its indexes tracking auction-rate securities as the credit crisis renders the market inactive.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes rose this week, as the municipal market dealt with a sizeable slate of primary market issuance, and bond prices cheapened slightly throughout the week.

Municipal bonds simultaneously are historically cheap and historically expensive in the current market environment.

Amid brisk trading of Puerto Rico debt in the secondary market, analysts have mixed feelings about the prospect of the commonwealth selling new debt this year.

Investors shrugged off a rough patch for municipal bonds and continued plowing money into muni mutual funds last week.

An $800 million sale of general revenue bonds from the University of California Regents will kick off the activity in the primary market and will be part of an estimated $5.15 billion in total negotiated and competitive sales planned for pricing this week, according to Thomson Reuters.

Most of The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes rose this week, as the municipal market endured the last sessions of an 11-day string of rising yields prior to yesterday's unchanged market.

General Electric has removed 2 million underperforming private-label retail credit card accounts from its securitized master trust to shore up the performance of its bonds.

The investment case for tobacco bonds is that smokers are so hopelessly addicted they will continue buying cigarettes no matter what.

The assets of tax-exempt money market funds fell $149.4 million to $482.12 billion for the week ending March 2, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

A month after inclining to its steepest slope in decades, the municipal yield curve has flattened a bit.

Tobacco companies contending billions of dollars in legal settlement payments released $540 million to states last week to advance resolution of the dispute.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds slowed a bit again last week as muni prices continued to cool off.