James Ramage

The municipal bond market is weakening by slow accretion. A second day of California GOs and Empire State Development Corporation paper have kept market participants busy and pushed up yields incrementally

The municipal market started Wednesday morning slightly weaker in tone as dealers worked to unload some of their balances.

Many prominent, heavily leveraged municipal bond closed-end funds saw sharp declines to their NAVs late last week thanks to seasonal factors, such as lighter cash flows, heavier supply and lower demand, mixed in with the approaching tax season.

Zero-coupon bonds: exceptional value or chronic underperformance? Opinions vary, but there's no mistaking that there's a lot of activity in zeros lately as investors look to them for yield.

For the first time in nine weeks, muni bond funds that report flows weekly recorded outflows for the week of March 6, at $97 million.

Inflows to municipal bond mutual funds ticked up this week to $324 million, making it eight consecutive weeks in the red.

Long-term municipal bond issuance hit the brakes in February, as issuers floated 22% less in volume last month than they did over the same period in 2012.

The municipal market on Tuesday saw a day of robust downward yield moves in a session traders described as lackluster in activity.

Scales tracking the municipal market may forecast lower yields across most of the spectrum of the curve Tuesday, but the scene for retail investors is a quiet one.

Municipal bond yields, true to their habit of following Treasury yields with a noticeable lag, have started Tuesday lower, bestowing upon the market a stronger tenor.

Municipal bond investors, particularly institutions, sat out Monday's session, giving the market a sluggish tone.

Municipal bond investors have watched credit spreads in the market narrow considerably over the past three years. And they aren't expected to reverse course anytime over the next 12 months.

A leaden and lackluster municipal market shuffled into the afternoon Monday. While the retail order periods for some of the week's issuance seep in, market participants, particularly institutions, have been holding their fire in the secondary in anticipation of larger offers to come, giving the market a ponderous tone.

The municipal bond market adopted a weaker tone beyond the front end of the curve out of the gate Monday.

Flows to municipal bond mutual funds remained positive for a seventh straight week, but only modestly so, recording $292 million in inflows for the week of Feb. 20.

Philip Fischer's career starts and ends with numbers. It's led to public finance and Merrill Lynch, where he ascended to the head of muni bond research. It continues today at eBooleant Consulting and with the release of his book, "Investing in Municipal Bonds: How to Balance Risk and Reward for Success in Today's Bond Market" in January.

From his first job at Halsey, Stuart & Co., to his last 20 years at Mesirow Financial, Jimmy Willems regarded muni bond sales as first and foremost a relationship business. He died last week, at 70.

The municipal bond market recorded a solid week of inflows to mutual funds, at $490 million, breaking a four-week string of dwindling demand.

New leadership assumed the helm of the municipal finance group at RBC Capital Markets' Denver office this week. Jon Moellenberg has become manager of the Denver office, filling the role held by Rus Heise who retired after 36 years at the firm.

A dramatic increase in refundings, particularly in the first half of 2012, boosted volume for long-term municipal bonds by 31% last year from one year earlier.