Markets

Municipal volume is forecast to drop 45% as a holiday shortened week brings the second quarter to a close.

For the eighth week in a row, municipal bond funds reported outflows, bringing to 11 out of 26 weeks this year the funds have seen cash withdrawals.

For the week ended June 25, the weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, increased one basis point to 4.46%, from 4.45% the previous week.

Total net tax-supported debt fell for the first time in 28 years in 2014, a Moody’s report found.

A Virginia judge approved a mediated deal June 22 that will keep Virginia's Briar College open for another year and release endowment funds.

Covenant violations on lines of credit and poor operations caused Howard University's bond rating to fall with the possibility of the rating declining more if the university cannot fix operations that have been running a deficit in recent years.

Los Angeles’ $1.39 billion of Series 2015 tax and revenue anticipation notes and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ $939 million GO bond sales lead the way for a week that is projected to see $8.7 billion, according to Ipreo and The Bond Buyer. That is up from the revised $6.5 billion that the market saw the week of June 15, according to Thomson Reuters.

Analysts at BlackRock Inc. say municipal demand will rebound once a combination of budgetary and quarter-end pressures subside at the end of June.

The weekly average yield to maturity of The Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, decreased two basis points to 4.45% for the week ended June 18 from 4.47% in the previous week.

For the seventh week in a row, municipal bond funds reported outflows, bringing to 10 out of 25 weeks this year the funds have suffered cash withdrawals.