Markets

The municipal market can expect $8.26 billion of new issues this week, a slight increase from last week, despite rising yields across the curve.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw inflows for a fourth consecutive week, doubling last week's numbers.

The common talking point that municipal bonds are now driven by credit rather than rates seems a bit off the mark in a week like this.

Tax-exempt money market funds continued to suffer large outflows for a third straight week as investors withdrew $2.83 billion and total net assets fell to $289.29 billion in the week ended Sept. 26, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Yield and spread opportunities in the tax-exempt market in the first half of 2011 led banks to invest a larger portion of their assets in municipal securities compared to the same period last year, according to industry analysts and quarterly data provided by Highline Financial LLC.

Muni investors have herded into short-term debt the last few months thinking that if rates rise, longer-term bonds will plummet in value and it will be good to have cash on hand to reinvest at higher rates. But are short-term bonds really such a safe haven?

Plunging interest rates are luring more issuers to market, encouraging market participants to believe muni volume for the final months of 2011 can increase from recent anemic levels.