Investments

Table as of: 08/03/2012 10:26 AM Invisible Supply Issuer and purpose Amount

Stockton, Calif., is proposing to temporarily cut personnel costs by 6.6% while permanently cutting payments on the Assured-insured pension obligation bonds by 83%, the company said.

Flows to municipal bond mutual funds fell this week, but they still remain positive. The market saw a sluggish week of mostly stagnant yields and mixed interest for product in the primary and secondary markets. Muni bond funds reported almost $504 million of inflows from funds that report their flows weekly for the week ended Aug. 1, according to Lipper FMI. They have seen inflows for 16 consecutive weeks.

A sluggish municipal market failed to gain any momentum this week. But although muni yields underperformed those of Treasuries, they only weakened by an incremental factor in the belly of the curve. They remain near record lows across the curve. Muni indexes were higher on the week beyond the short end of the curve, which reached its lowest point in the 23 years it has been tracked.

Moody's Investors Service has put bond insurer Syncora Guarantee on review for an upgrade from Ca. This is due to Syncora receiving a $375 million settlement from Bank of America.

ARIZONA

ARKANSAS

A New York court has ruled that bond insurer ACA must pay claims on defaulted bonds that it insured.

Municipal bond analysts are in demand. With triple-A yields diving into record low territory, fund managers are being forced to look harder to find yield.

The financial health of state housing finance agencies is mixed, Fitch Ratings reported Tuesday.

Table as of: 07/31/2012 11:03 AM Invisible Supply Issuer and purpose Amount

ALABAMA

ARKANSAS

Long-term municipal bond issuance for 2012 continues to outpace that of the previous year. But the once-yawning gap year-over-year has narrowed. Issuers floated just 7% more in total volume last month than they did in July 2011. That amounted to $26.6 billion on 836 issues in July 2012, against $24.9 billion on 757 deals over the same period last year.

FLORIDA

ILLINOIS

Indiana's Purdue University will sell $58 million of student-fee bonds Wednesday in the first of two August deals to raise money for capital needs.

After being postponed a week, the NYU Hospitals Center's $250 million taxable bond sale will come to the market sometime this week — possibly as early as Tuesday.

Franchise strength, offset by leverage, is the most important component of Fitch airport ratings, according to a new Fitch Ratings report. The study concludes an 8 month review of Fitch's airport portfolio.