Chip Barnett

Municipal bond traders on Friday will be looking ahead to next week's hefty new-issue slate after a busy week that saw several large deals come to market.

For the 11th straight week, municipal bond funds reported cash outflows. The weekly reporting funds saw $29.255 million of outflows in the week ended July 15, after experiencing outflows of $305.707 million in the previous week, according to the latest Lipper data.

Signature Public Funding Corp. has been formed by New York-based Signature Bank as a wholly-owned subsidiary unit that will specialize in municipal finance nationwide.

Financial problems in Greece and China caused volatility in the U.S. municipal bond market during the week. A flight-to-quality move pulled yields on top-shelf municipal bonds down by about 13 basis points. By the end of the week, though, calm had returned, and yields jumped back up in the last two trading sessions.

For the 10th week in a row, municipal bond funds reported cash outflows. The weekly reporting funds saw $305.707 million of outflows in the week ended July 8, after experiencing outflows of $1.199 billion in the previous week, according to the latest Lipper data.

Prices of top-quality municipal bonds closed stronger on Monday, traders said, with yields on some maturities falling by as much as six basis points as geopolitical worries caused a flight to quality.

Prices of top-quality municipal bonds were stronger at mid-session, traders said, with yields on some maturities falling by as much as five basis points as geopolitical worries caused a flight to quality.

Prices of top-quality municipal bonds were stronger, traders said, with yields on some maturities falling by as much as six basis points as worries about Greece and China caused a flight to quality.

In a move that may bolster municipal bond market transparency, S&P Capital IQ has unveiled a new intra-day muni bond pricing service.

For the ninth week in a row, municipal bond funds reported an almost $1.2 billion outflow, the largest cash withdrawal so far this year. This brought to 12 out of 27 weeks this year the funds have suffered cash withdrawals.

The holiday week started off with a bang for the municipal bond market — with much of the fireworks coming from outside the continental United States. It ended with a whimper, in a quiet trading day before the national holiday marking the birth of a nation.

Prices of top-quality municipal bonds were steady at mid-session, traders said, in very quiet pre-holiday trade.

Fixed Income Academy and The Bond Buyer have announced two winners in their "Back to Basics" scholarship contest.

The municipal bond market is gearing up to take off as the three-day holiday weekend looms large. The bond and stock markets are closed on Friday in observance of the Independence Day holiday. Trading will resume on Monday.

Prices of top-rated municipal bonds finished weaker on Wednesday, according to traders, with yields on some maturities rising by as much as five basis points. There were no major deals on tap but traders were eying Puerto Rico developments -- and the clock, as the countdown toward the long holiday weekend began to tick.

Prices of top-rated municipal bonds were weaker at mid-session, according to traders, with yields on some maturities up by as much as five basis points.

The municipal bond market on Wednesday was digesting the supply that priced in the previous two sessions.

Municipal bonds closed out the session unchanged on Tuesday, traders said, as the rest of the week's paltry new issue supply came to market.

Municipal bonds were unchanged at mid-session in quiet trading, as the bulk of the week's paltry supply was being priced.

Prices of Puerto Rico debt continued to fall on Tuesday, with commonwealth Series 2014A general obligation 8s of 2035 trading as low as 64.50 cents on the dollar, with a 13.028% high yield, according to the MSRB's EMMA website.