It has gotten easier for corporations to issue bonds, but it is still mighty expensive for companies with outstanding debt that don't have a great credit rating.
Exchange-traded funds that invest in municipal bonds are gaining in popularity, but some industry watchers think that mutual funds are a better option.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. is investigating whether broker-dealers are meeting their obligations to municipal-bond issuers who seek distribution to retail investors.
Being an investment research analyst during one of the most historic economic downturns can be stressful.
If the bull market in bonds is coming to an end, emerging markets may be one place where fixed-income investors can take refuge.
The three-decade overall bull market in bonds is dead — and though there are opportunities in some corporate and emerging-markets bonds, the easy money has been made.
Treasury prices mostly extended their gains yesterday as investors sought the safety of government debt amid a big sell-off in stocks.
Another $30 billion in three-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 0.150 percent, down from 0.165 percent last week. That rate was the lowest since 0.135 percent on April 30.
Inflation fears and attractive returns are driving demand for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities.
The Blackstone Group LP plans to sell bonds for the first time, but offered no details on how much or when.
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board today proposed new rules aimed at ensuring that municipal bond underwriters honor issuers' wishes to preserve retail investors' access to new bond issues < http://www.msrb.org/msrb1/whatsnew/2009-47.asp>.
Prices of government bonds fell today ahead of another round of Treasury auctions as traders worried that the latest issues might be met with weak demand.
Though fewer catastrophe bonds were issued during the first half of 2009, investors may see more of these issuances in the second half of the year as the financial markets stabilize, according to a report from Guy Carpenter & Co. LLC and GC Securities, both of New York.
The recently issued SEC proposal to expand issuer disclosure in the $2.7 trillion municipal-securities market doesn't go far enough, say muni-bond analysts and the mutual fund industry.
Despite the superior performance of fixed-income assets recently, an all-bond asset allocation is unlikely to deliver investors the returns they need in the future, according to analysis released by Ibbotson Associates, the research division of Morningstar Inc. of Chicago.
FundQuest Inc. of Boston has expanded the offerings on its managed-accounts platform to include select alternative strategies.
Although state and local governments across the country face staggering budget deficits, their struggles are having little effect on municipal-bond prices.
Last month, 15 bond issuers were downgraded to speculative grade (BB+ and lower) from investment grade (BBB- and higher), the third-highest monthly tally of “fallen angels” since Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC began keeping track in 1987, according to a report today from the New York-based rating agency.
Through the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the government has created Build America Bonds.
