The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board today filed a proposed rule change with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would allow it to collect voluntary-disclosure data from municipal issuers.
Moody’s Investors Service has placed all U.S. municipalities on negative outlook, indicating its expectations for the whole sector over the next 12 to 18 months.
Eight out of the 10 best-performing bond funds during the three-month period ended March 30 were municipal bond funds, according Lipper Inc. of New York.
More employer-sponsored retirement plans may start to offer Treasury and government money market mutual funds to minimize the risk of losses, according to a survey of plan consultants released today by Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC.
Distributions of $60 million have been made to investors of municipal bond insurer MBIA Inc. of Armonk, N.Y., the Securities and Exchange Commission announced today.
A sign of the times: Portfolio managers are more bullish about bonds than equities for the first time in years, according to a Russell Investments survey.
The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it will spend up to $300 billion over the next six months to buy long-term government bonds, a new step aimed at lifting the U.S. out of recession by lowering rates on mortgages and other consumer debt.
E*Trade Financial Corp. today announced the launch of a series of online tools aimed at helping its customers select fixed-income products.
China's premier is worried about its massive holdings of Treasuries and other U.S. debt, appealing to Washington to safeguard their value.
Attempts to avoid the largest municipal-bond default in U.S. history were dealt a blow this month when two Wall Street banks ended swap agreements with Jefferson County, Ala.
Fitch Ratings is putting off a review of its municipal ratings program because of the economic downturn.
Ratings agencies today painted a bleak outlook for AIG, following news of the insurer’s massive fourth-quarter loss and an additional $30 billion lifeline from the U.S. government.
Standard and Poor’s yesterday announced ratings downgrades for 10 major life insurers, including Genworth Financial Inc., Lincoln National Corp. and MetLife Inc.
Fidelity Investments plans to increase its presence in the municipal-bond market, firm executives said in an interview.
Hard times are on the horizon for insurers as commercial mortgage exposure haunts carriers and capital levels shrink, according to Fitch.
Janus Capital Group Inc. of Denver saw its ratings drop a notch to junk status today courtesy of Standard & Poor’s of New York.
OppenheimerFunds Inc. of New York is facing a class-action involving its California Municipal Fund, which lost 41.3% last year.
Municipalities stepped up their issuance of bonds by 5.3% in January, from a year ago, according to The Bond Buyer.
The genesis of the index is the Temporary Liquidity Guaranty Program created by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which allows bank holding companies to issue senior unsecured debt guaranteed by the U.S. government.
The default rate for issuers of U.S. corporate junk bonds — bonds that Standard & Poor’s rates BB+ and below — is expected to “catapult” to an all-time high of 13.9% by December, S&P said in a report today.
