Markets

Investors were down on the municipal bond market for a third straight week as $261 million poured out of weekly reporting muni bond mutual funds for the week of March 20.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes were narrowly mixed the week ended March 21.

After more than 50 years in the municipal bond business, Richard "Dick" O'Brien, of the regional brokerage firm Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas, is ready to step down and spend more time with his family … and his farm.

After its downgrade of MBIA Insurance Corp., Standard & Poor's has downgraded six MBIA-insured housing bond issues.

Tax-exempt money market funds reversed a recent spate of outflows -- yet gained just a scant $24.2 million -- as total net assets barely inched up to $276.65 billion in the week ended March 18, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Moody's Investors Service said it expects to finalize its approach to making adjustments to the pension data reported by U.S. state and local governments in April.

U.S. credit implications remain uncertain following conflicting budget proposals last week, according to Moody's Investors Service.

U.S. Bancorp announced Monday that its subsidiary, U.S. Bank, has agreed to acquire Deutsche Bank's municipal bond trustee business.

The settlement between some states and tobacco manufacturers is a credit positive for those states and their related tobacco securitizations, Fitch Ratings said in a report Friday.