Fixed income

According to the firm, the funds were closed to protect the interests of existing investors. However, they will continue to accept additional investments from existing shareholders and direct rollovers from qualified retirement plans into new T. Rowe Price IRAs.

More money is chasing fewer coupons. Bargains are going fast.

Investors piled into muni bond mutual funds this past week.

Municipal portfolio managers say retail investors are turning to tax-exempt bond funds because they see them as a relatively safe harbor in stormy seas.

Fund investors paid an average of 79 basis points for equity mutual funds and 62 basis points for bond funds, down 4 points and 2 points, respectively, from 2010, according to a new report from the Investment Company Institute.

The prospect of rising interest rates, though not anticipated for the near future, has many bond holders wringing their hands, but a fixed income strategist at Schwab offered strategies planners can use to avoid “bondageddon” and stay in the bond market, while protecting their clients’ assets.

The investment bank and brokerage said its bond trading revenue rose compared with last year's first quarter, stripping out an accounting quirk, even as its chief rival, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, posted a decline.

BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, is planning to become an exchange operator.

Analysts more than ever are monitoring the ebb and flow of cash into municipal bond mutual funds.

Nervous money, spooked off last year by banking analyst Meredith Whitney's prediction on "60 Minutes" of widespread defaults, is now flocking back to the tax-free debt of cities, states and other public entities such as colleges and toll bridges.

The first criminal trial involving muni market executives accused of bid-rigging is scheduled to begin next week in a federal court in New York City, unless they enter into plea agreements.

The IRS has launched a compliance practice research team that will seek to identify red-flags indicating questionable municipal bond transactions.

Municipal bond defaults in early 2012 were up dramatically — or down dramatically — depending on how you look at the data.

New issuance of long-term municipal bonds continued to rebound in March from last year’s relatively anemic figures, surging 82.5%.

While the municipal bond market is still strong, experts agree that increasing local financial strain makes the landscape more complex.

Many banks were aggressive buyers of municipal bonds in 2011, seeing value in high relative tax-exempt yields and stepping in to make direct purchases of debt.

N.Y. Liberty Development Corp. tops Bond Buyer 100 list of leading muni bond issuers.

With muni yields having backed up from lows established earlier in the year, the environment may have shifted to the point where issuers are unsure about the timing for bringing new deals to market.

Aberdeen Asset Management Inc. has launched the Aberdeen U.S. High Yield Bond Fund, which will bet on below investment grade bonds.

Realizing that advisors needed help in the current low-yield environment, Schwab decided to offer an automatic bond ladder investment composed entirely of PIMCO municipal bonds.