By Lisa Lambert and David Gaffen

(Reuters) – Some public agencies that rely on the municipal bond market for financing fear that a landmark financial reform rule will cripple their ability to sell bonds and make it more expensive to raise money for crucial services.

The Volcker Rule was designed to curb the risks that banks take with depositor dollars, a practice known as proprietary trading. But the rule risks ensnaring public agencies ranging from housing agencies to hospital authorities because the way muni bonds are sold and traded results in banks risking their own capital — the very practice banned under the Volcker Rule.

NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Asset
Management, the asset management arm of Goldman Sachs is
buying $42 billion Dwight Asset Management Company LLC from Old
Mutual Asset Management, the company confirmed after Reuters
reported the deal.

Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the second
quarter of 2012, were not disclosed.

By David Gaffen

(Reuters) – Wall Street traders and fund managers have opinions on almost everything – from politics to religion to the price of a spectacular bottle of wine. But ask about this Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup between the New York Giants and the Boston-backed New England Patriots, and they’re suddenly far from loquacious.

Even if they’re Dan Fuss, one of the most respected fund managers in the country. Fuss isn’t exactly in danger of losing his position, but wasn’t keen to get chatty about American football’s big championship game, which is annually the most-watched televised event in the United States.

By David Gaffen

(Reuters) – Global bond market funds were the biggest winner in 2011, as investors seeking safety poured more than $110 billion into fixed-income funds, according to data from fund tracker EPFR Global released on Friday.

U.S. bond funds had the single largest amount of inflows as tracked by EPFR, at $62.3 billion, a good thing for investors who responded to the year’s volatility by staying away from stocks and commodities.

By David Gaffen

(Reuters) – Should the euro zone debt crisis drag the continent into a recession, states and regions in the United States would not be immune to the fallout across the Atlantic, a report said on Wednesday.

Europe is a significant trading partner with the United States, particularly states such as New York, California and Texas, the three most populous – and among the largest issuers of municipal debt – in the country.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The EU summit is on. No, wait, it’s off. No, hold on, the summit is on, and what’s more, now there are two of them.

The daily headlines out of Europe are enough to make a long-term investor’s head spin and more importantly, to keep them out of the market altogether.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – One day after Pennsylvania’s state capital filed for bankruptcy, the city lawyer handling the case defended against allegations the move was illegal.

Harrisburg is one of a handful of municipalities that has flirted with bankruptcy in the wake of the Great Recession that devastated budgets in state and local communities. Some say it could become a touchstone for whether other cities will follow this path to extract concessions from creditors and others.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices slipped and world stocks rose on Monday above recent 11-month lows on hopes the conflict in Libya could be ending as energy shares higher after last week’s equity market selloff.

U.S. stocks jumped at the open, led by Exxon Mobil Corp, which rose 2 percent. Investors, however, offset buys of risky assets by continuing to buy gold. Persistent worries that the sovereign debt crisis in euro zone peripheral countries may spread to bigger economies in the region encouraged flows into gold, pushing it to another record high.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – After the terrible rout in markets on Thursday investors spoke of holding fast and even poking around for buying opportunities, but that’s hard when the market is likely facing another weak U.S. jobs report on Friday.

Markets’ sentiment has swung dramatically in the last few days as investors price in another recession and an unsuccessful battle by euro zone politicians to halt an expanding sovereign debt crisis.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stock futures jumped and the dollar rebounded in a sign of relief that U.S. lawmakers were moving closer on Sunday to a deal that would allow the country to continue to borrow money and head off a devastating short-term default.

The Swiss franc, the favored safety currency during this crisis, pulled back from record highs against the dollar, and gold slipped off all-time peaks.