Fixed income

Brown Advisory has launched the Brown Advisory Tactical Bond Fund, a fund focused on total return that, using a quantitative modeling process to track macro movements in bond sectors, will invest in fixed-income products including tax-exempt municipal bonds, corporate bonds, U.S. Treasury bonds, Treasury inflation protected securities and cash equivalents.

The TCW Group has launched the MetWest Unconstrained Bond Fund, a mutual fund with the flexibility to invest across a wide array of global fixed-income sectors.

DoubleLine Funds Trust has launched the DoubleLine Low Duration Bond Fund.

Scout Investments has launched the Scout Unconstrained Bond Fund, which will invest across the entire fixed income universe -- including investment grade, high-yield, governments, agencies, mortgage-backed, asset-backed and foreign markets.

Muni investors have herded into short-term debt the last few months thinking that if rates rise, longer-term bonds will plummet in value and it will be good to have cash on hand to reinvest at higher rates. But are short-term bonds really such a safe haven?

Mortgage real-estate investment trusts have been exempt from the Investment Act of 1940, which regulates the fees that can be charged to investors and limits the amount of leverage a fund can use. But the Securities and Exchange Commission said last month that it had initiated a review of that exemption, as mortgage REITs are beginning to look more like mutual funds.

Traditionally, municipal bonds have been sold to investors in units of $1,000 or even $5,000 or $10,000 per bond, a size that deters many smaller investors or leads them to turn to a bond fund. Now California is doing something about that by offering $25 mini-bonds.

Most analysts and economists believe the Federal Reserve Board is practically compelled to do something to help boost the economy when it meets later this month. If and when the Fed makes a move, it will likely have a negative impact on bond funds.

Local revenues are on the rise—the first quarter of 2011 market the sixth consecutive period in which state and city revenues have increased.

The stock market may be reeling, the U.S. sovereign debt rating may have taken a hit from Standard & Poor’s and the Eurozone debt crisis may be worsening, but high-quality corporate bonds are looking like a great deal.

A failure by politicians in Washington to reach a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling in the next few days -- particularly if Standard & Poor's makes good on its threat to lower the country's AAA sovereign debt rating -- could have “deep and wide reverberations” in credit and equities markets, according to Todd Rosenbluth, an analyst at S&P Equity Research. But bond funds might be unscathed.

Bond investors have been put on notice by rating agency Standard & Poor's that it is not just the U.S. sovereign debt rating that is in jeopardy because of the ongoing wrangling in Washington over raising -- or not raising -- the federal debt ceiling and, especially, whether or how lawmakers cut the government’s massive and ever-growing deficit.

American Beacon Advisors has launched the American Beacon Flexible Bond Fund, which seeks to deliver positive returns no matter what the market direction by investing in a broad range of fixed income instruments.

Late last year, prominent banking analyst Meredith Whitney warned investors that between 50 and 100 municipalities were headed for default and that the carnage would cost investors hundreds of billions of dollars. But at the midway point of 2011, that's hardly been the case.

The new tool ranks the safety of 44 countries' bonds, with Norway topping the list thanks to its low debt and comparatively fewer risks from abroad while the U.S. checked in at No. 15.

A trio of new bond fund products on offer by Fidelity, iShares and PIMCO provide smaller investors with the opportunity get more of the benefits of a bond ladder without the usual bond fund downsides.

Fidelity Investments on Wednesday announced the launch of four Fidelity Defined Maturity Funds, a series of four actively managed municipal income funds. The funds seek to bridge the gap between individual bonds and bond funds and, therefore, fill a gap in municipal bond investing, Fidelity said.

Morgan Keegan & Co. agreed to a $200 million settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and five state securities regulators that resolves a civil case brought against the firm last year accusing top executives of defrauding investors by artificially inflating the value of mortgage-backed securities in several of its mortgage bond funds.

California Gov. Jerry Brown’s quick veto of the budget adopted by the Legislature last week has renewed concerns about the state’s cash flow amid another long ­delay.

A new report from Morningstar looking at May’s fund flows adds further evidence that investors are growing less enchanted with equities in favor of more conservative assets.