Markets

The Bond Buyer weekly yield indexes were narrowly mixed the week ended Jan. 31.

It's a new year, but talk of municipal bond issuance still revolves around the same subject: refundings. Long-term muni bond volume for January jumped 39% over the same period one year earlier.

Outflows of $3.43 billion continued to whittle down tax-free money market funds in the week ended Jan. 28 as total net assets settled at $282.68 billion after the third steady week of losses.

2012 was a good year for municipal bond mutual funds, approaching the robust overall returns seen in 2011. Muni funds with long maturities that focused on high yield performed best.

The outlook for the water and sewer sector is mostly stable for this year, although utilities will face rate and drought pressures, said Standard & Poor's.

In his more than 25 years on the municipal bond desk at Merrill Lynch and BlackRock, Peter Hayes has had front-row seats to some of the biggest changes in asset management, and in particular, how they've affected the municipal bond industry. He brings those to bear in his analysis for 2013.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency may make little headway into breaking up the "big three," but it may trigger changes in operations by Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings, according to a municipal analyst.

The Bond Buyer weekly yield indexes were narrowly mixed the week ended Jan. 24.

Inflows to municipal bond mutual funds, while still robust, have fallen for a second straight week, to $871 million from funds that report their flows weekly.