Leap Year means 29 days in February 2012, so there is an extra day of bond news this month. New issue supply remained modest, demand strong The new issue supply of municipal bonds remained fairly modest in February and investor demand remained strong during the month. Prices in the U.S. Treasury bond market held up […]
The bond market’s powerful December rally continued unabated into the first month of the year. Bond yields declined to near historic lows in both the U.S. Treasury and municipal bond sectors. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 1.80% on January 31st versus 3.37% on the same day last year. The 20-year “AAA” rated municipal bond […]
As Bernardi Securities, Inc. begins its 27th year, we are acutely aware of the importance of understanding the credit quality of the municipal bond issues we recommend to our clients. We have long believed the bond portfolio research and management process starts with credit analysis. Our long-time clients have heard us preach these three constants […]
In this video briefing, Ronald Bernardi summarizes the key points of the market update below. The three prevailing bond market themes during the first half of 2010 were alternately annoying and unnervingly consistent: 1. Annoyingly low, nominal yields. 2. Unnerving, sporadic credit scares. 3. Unnerving liquidity concerns. […]
In recent months, we have often heard the refrain from investors, “I’m just going to wait until interest rates rise.” and, in fact, many investors are waiting for Federal Reserve policy makers to raise interest rates before committing money to the bond market. This attitude is understandable given the Federal Funds rate has been held […]
In this two-part video briefing, Ronald Bernardi summarizes the key points of the President’s Letter below. The 2009 municipal bond market was much kinder and gentler than the 2008 version and, as a result, some investors are falling back into the pre-2008 malaise: making uninformed or spur-of-the-moment investment decisions often based upon inadequate information. Recently […]
Michelle Bernardi Landis summarizes the key points of the President’s Letter below. There have been many news stories recently regarding the municipal bond market and its impending debt crisis. Most of them have been unnerving and intimidating. Many of these sensational news stories are warranted while many are overblown and will be played out in […]
Last month I was invited to participate in an hour-long discussion hosted and aired live by InvestmentNews, Muni Markets: Maneuvering Through the Minefield. The content was wide-ranging and lively. Over the past few years, we have written about a number of the topics discussed, while other issues covered by the group offered new material to […]
August 2012 To our Clients: In recent months there have been a number of high profile failures of commodity investment firms. MF Global and Peregrine Financial have been in the news and are charged with misuse of customer funds. These events highlight the differences in the way the commodities industry and the broker-dealer industry are […]
John Wood College of Illinois Community College District #539 successfully completed an $800,000 General Obligation, Alternate Revenue Source transaction on April 5, 2012. Located in western Illinois approximately 105 miles west of Springfield, Illinois, the district covers about 2,363 square miles and serves a population of roughly 95,000. The bonds were issued to finance the […]