Buy side

As part of an expansion of its suite of municipal bond exchange-traded funds, Van Eck Global launched a high-yield muni ETF yesterday.

Ron Schwartz has been trying to pick the best spot on the yield curve for more than 20 years. His take on where that point is now: smack in the middle.

The tender-option bond programs that imploded last year did not fall victim to bad luck or unforeseeable illiquidity, a study released last week concluded. Rather, the strategies these programs used were doomed from the start.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes declined this week, as the municipal market grew firmer in each of the week's sessions.

Almost a year after barreling past a previously unprecedented milestone, municipal bonds have returned to that milestone - coming from the opposite direction.

After a lull in supply during the last two weeks, the first week of February will kick off with noticeably more vigor thanks to at least two significantly sized deals - a $950 million California school deal and a $614 million general obligation sale in the Southeast.

Inflows into municipal bond mutual funds slowed last week as the muni market drifted lower.

James Colby, senior municipal strategist at Van Eck Global, admits the timing is pretty fortuitous.

Tax-free money market funds lost $7.69 billion - more than triple the outflows of the previous week - causing total assets to settle at $493.41 billion for the week ending Jan. 26, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com of Westborough, Mass.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes rose this week, despite a modest late-week rally that ended a near two-week string of losses.

Philip G. Condon knows his history.

The municipal bond yield curve is the steepest in more than a quarter-century as investors continue to shun long-term munis in favor of short-term debt.

Cash continued to pour into municipal bond mutual funds last week as investors shrugged off a dip in the muni market and persisted in chasing relatively high tax-exempt yields.

As January comes to a close, a pair of New York deals - one to finance a new baseball stadium - and a utility offering in the nation's capital are expected to be the largest deals priced in conjunction with an estimated $2.975 billion in new competitive and negotiated volume, according to Thomson Reuters.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Naples, Fla.-based Wasmer, Schroeder & Co. has hired a new managing director and fixed-income strategist to run the firm's new office in Philadelphia.

It was one of the most tumultuous years in the history of the municipal bond market for tax-exempt portfolio managers.

Investors six weeks ago were practically unanimous in believing municipal bonds were cheap. Now some are not so sure.

Tax-exempt money market funds suffered outflows of $2.14 billion, ending the week of Jan. 19 with $501.1 billion in total assets, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com of Westborough, Mass.

Nearly all of The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes rose this week, ending the municipal market's string of gains since the beginning of 2009.

Fat yields, low inflation, and a turbulent stock market led to the largest cash influx into municipal bond mutual funds in more than half a year.