Buy side

Gov. Tom Wolf signed a $31.5 billion budget after lawmakers filled a $1.3 billion gap through a patchwork of tax hikes and revenue assumptions.

Municipal officials should adopt a 6% rate of return as a baseline assumption for public pension investments, according to Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

The long-term principal and interest payment schedule for Chicago's general obligation debt swelled by about $1.7 billion last year, according to the city's comprehensive annual financial report.

Federal Chapter 9 policy is ill-defined and fluid, a bankruptcy expert said at a municipal finance conference at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Demand for municipal bonds is forecast to be just as robust, if not stronger, in the third quarter.

The weekly average yield to maturity of The Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, dropped three basis points to 3.72% from 3.75% in the previous week.

For the 40th straight week, municipal bond funds reported inflows, according to corrected Lipper data released on Friday. On Thursday, Lipper erroneously reported that weekly reporting funds had experienced an outflow.

Neither budget gridlock nor bankruptcy nor Puerto Rican default can stay the municipal investor from his appointed rounds.

In the week ended June 30, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index fell five basis points to 3.75% from 3.80% in the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

State bonded debt was relatively flat in 2015, according to a report released this week by Moody’s Investors Service.

In one of the biggest rallies in recent memory, municipal bonds surged on Friday after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Yields on some top-rated municipals fell by as much as 17 basis points to record low levels, in a move that some analysts said signaled yields will remain near all-time lows for longer than anyone had expected, and that negative U.S. interest rates may be on the horizon.

The weekly average yield to maturity of The Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices was steady at 3.80% from the previous week.

Bond industry veteran Tony Miscimarra is the new managing director of business development at BondWave LLC, as the financial technology company and registered investment advisor prepares to launch a suite of new technology products.

The political and financial dysfunction of Illinois cost the state $12 million on Thursday’s $550 million bond pricing compared to its previous sale in January, according to a report from the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

Illinois paid a steeper penalty to borrow Thursday after a fresh round of downgrades but a municipal market offering historically low yields helped disguise the spreads.

In the week ended June 16, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, was six basis points lower to 3.80%, from 3.86% the previous week.

The city of Los Angeles is set to offer $1.46 billion of tax and revenue anticipation notes on Tuesday, June 21, in what will be the largest TRAN offering in the United States this year.

Municipal bond investors are in a good position to wait out the Federal Reserve, after policy makers left the target interest rate unchanged and signaled increases will be gradual, strategists said.

California's new, higher legal smoking age of 21 heralds more trouble for tobacco securitization debt, said analyst Richard Larkin.

New Jersey bonds could see spread tightening after a state Supreme Court decision upholding the 2011 suspension of cost of living adjustments to retiree pension benefits, but any boost will likely be short-lived, according to Municipal Market Analytics.