Markets

Remarketing $700 million of variable-rate debt last year has helped New York's MTA position itself in a volatile market, finance director Patrick McCoy said.

Municipal bond issuance will stay light in the coming week, rising to $4.89 billion, as the calendar offers little to sate investors' growing hunger for tax-exempt paper.

Bond Buyer indexes slid for the third week in a row.

Inflows to municipal bond mutual funds continued for a second straight week, at just $86 million, for the week ended Jan. 22.

The Massachusetts pension reserves investment trust fund returned 15.2% in calendar 2013, marking an investment gain of $7.9 billion, according to the Pension Reserves Investment Management board.

The primary market will be dominated by new-issue activity in the Northeast, led by a $1 billion Port Authority of NY & NJ consolidated bond issue that will be part of $5 billion of new volume expected.

Municipal bonds continued to rally the past week, with U.S. economic data suggesting a slow recovery just as mutual funds showed renewed investor interest in tax-exempt bonds

Municipal bond demand should increase in 2014 in an environment of expected higher interest rates, improved economic growth, lower issuance and richer valuations to Treasuries.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes plunged in the week ended Jan. 16.

In another sign of the improving tenor of the municipal bond market, muni mutual funds recorded their first inflows in 34 weeks, Lipper FMI numbers showed.