Fixed income

iShares has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch the iShares Latin America Bond Fund, which is benchmarked to the Barclays Latin America Bond Index.

The hunger for paper and search for yield in the municipal market reached their limits this week.

Individual investors have been flocking to municipal bond funds, searching for safety and relatively high yields.

Retail investors continue to rank credit quality high at the top of their list of criteria when shopping for municipal securities, whether they be individual bonds or tax-exempt bond funds.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw a huge week of inflows, as investors continue to see strength in the market.

Record-low long-term municipal bond yields may generate the most press these days, but investors still see the most value in the intermediate part of the yield curve.

Investors pulled an estimated $6.60 billion from U.S. stock funds the week ended May 2, six times the $1.17 billion they withdrew from the funds a week earlier.

Volume for the municipal market continues to tick down while investor demand for tax-exempt paper remains robust.

While individual investors — the primary owners of municipal debt — have generally increased their holdings in the last 10 years, some institutional investors have trimmed their holdings and others have been aggressive buyers.

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.