James Ramage

Retail investors have been trying to unload some of their more expensive municipal bonds during Monday's session, but they haven't been able to sell enough to move levels as the day's session crosses midday.

The municipal market woke up Monday to a smattering of bid-wanteds, few participants and few signs of strength or weakness.

Light issuance and the Federal Open Market Committee's decision to taper its bond-buying program drove the municipal market on the pre-holiday week.

Municipal bond trading desks, thinned by pre-holiday absences, made enough end-of-year moves Friday to strengthen yields at the long end of the curve.

The municipal bond market continues to hold its levels in the shadow of a stronger Treasury market at the long end of the yield curve.

Outflows from weekly reporting municipal bond mutual funds persisted for the 30th straight week, at $1.71 billion.

Municipal bond traders are waiting to see if tax-exempt yields will follow Treasuries Friday and strengthen at the long end of the curve.

Weakness at the five-year part of the municipal bond curve set the tone for the tax-exempt market as it spent Thursday's session catching up to Treasuries.

Heavy outflows from municipal bond mutual funds persisted, Lipper FMI numbers for the week of Dec. 18 showed.

The upward movement of Treasury yields following the Federal Reserve's announcement to begin tapering its bond buying has started to tug municipals higher as Thursday's session pushes into the afternoon.

Battered by rising interest rates and credit concerns in 2013, the muni market may face additional obstacles next year as regulatory limits on broker dealers could crimp liquidity.

Some large bid-wanteds dotted municipal bond traders' screens Thursday morning, but few market participants have stepped up to buy, thus far.

An unexpected amount of requests for bids filled traders screens Friday on a day where the municipal market strengthened in spots beyond the front end of the yield curve.

Municipal bond participants have noticed light trading in the secondary market early Friday afternoon, but spy continued interest there in the week's new issues.

Muni bond mutual funds struggled through their 29th straight week of outflows, at $1.90 billion for the week ended Dec. 11.

The municipal bond market adopted a stronger tenor out of the gate Friday morning on light activity.

Municipal bond mutual funds recorded heavy outflows, marking the 29th straight week money has left funds, Lipper FMI numbers showed.

The municipal market treaded water Thursday as it absorbed the remains of a busy weekly calendar and investors reacted to the threat of a downgrade to junk status of about $52 billion of Puerto Rico bonds.

The municipal market appeared flat to slightly weaker through midday Thursday as more heavy deals priced in the primary market.

The municipal market woke up Thursday with a large portion of the week's new issue supply set to arrive and a report by Moody's Investors Service that placed on watch for downgrade most of Puerto Rico's debt.