Buy side

The addition of a municipal high yield team from Invesco Ltd. is intended to add depth to its City National Rochdale Municipal High Income Fund and bring its management in-house.

So-called headline and political risk, notably in Pennsylvania, could further complicate an already difficult muni landscape, according to PNC Capital Markets.

S3, a financial services software company that provides customized platforms to monitor and analyze trade execution for equities and options, introduced a Fixed Income Execution Quality Suite to help bond traders comply with new best-execution standards.

With performance thriving and volatility trending lower, investors have pumped cash into high-yield municipal bond funds for the past 22 weeks to extend the sector’s more than two-year recovery.

The weekly average yield to maturity of The Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, was two basis points higher to 4.10% from 4.08% for the previous week.

Revised outlooks to negative from two of the four bond rating agencies represent “bittersweet” news for Connecticut, said state Treasurer Denise Nappier.

A $1 trillion shortfall in public pension plans is rooted in poor governance, think tank Manhattan Institute for Policy Research reported.

Organizers of a muni conference that features academics, market practitioners, public officials and regulations are rebranding the event and moving it from Boston to Washington.

From a threatened teacher strike to an escalating state-level attack on its governance and borrowing powers, the barrage of bad news has not let up for junk-rated Chicago Public Schools.

With one month to go until opening day, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services on Friday raised its underlying rating on the District of Columbia’s baseball park revenue bonds to BBB+ from BBB.

Land-secured municipal bond defaults have plunged thanks to shifts in market practices and macroeconomic trends since the Great Recession.

Water contamination-related lawsuits filed in Chicago and Flint, Mich. stand to influence the sector nationally as the cases draw more scrutiny to the dangers associated with older lead pipe-based systems, Fitch Rating says in a new report.

In the week ended March 3, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index rose three basis points to 4.08% from 4.05% in the previous week. The BB40 Index is based on the price of 40 long-term bonds.

Municipal bond trading volume fell 13% during 2015 while the overall number of trades remained relatively stable, continuing a pattern that stretches back to 2007, according to data released Thursday by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

The number of credit rating upgrades for states was nearly double the number of downgrades in 2015, according to an annual report released by Standard & Poor’s Tuesday.

Stability in key sectors of the municipal bond market, as well as low volatility, low risk, and a mild potential for capital appreciation will fuel solid demand for the asset class in 2016, according to John Miller, who manages or co-manages about $20 billion of munis at Nuveen Asset Management.

New Jersey is experiencing a deterioration of its credit quality with spreads widening in state-issued debt, according to Janney Capital Markets.

Axis Trading Solutions, Inc. said trading will resume on MuniAxis, under a new partnership with RBC Capital Markets LLC, in the first quarter of this year.

Falling tax assessments on Energy Future Holdings power plants could strain local budgets in six Texas counties as the company tries to emerge from the nation's largest corporate bankruptcy.

The weekly average yield to maturity of The Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, was one basis point higher to 4.05% from 4.04% for the previous week.