Markets

WASHINGTON - Amid a lackluster housing market, additional downgrades of military base projects and budgetary uncertainty, adjustment was the theme Thursday at The Bond Buyer's sixth annual military housing privatization conference.

Tax-exempt money market funds continued to bleed cash as investors withdrew $972.6 million and total net assets declined to $306.73 billion in the week ended June 20, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Corporate turnaround firms are known for rescuing companies on the brink of collapse in corporate America and on Wall Street, but lately some of them say they are putting more time and energy toward helping distressed state and local governments.

Bondholders, rating agencies and financial advisers may have never heard of the city of Portent Falls, but that's because it is the fictional municipality whose contentious bankruptcy case will be the focus of a free workshop aimed at bringing the financial, legal and negotiating issues of a major muni restructuring to light.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The fiscal distress in Jefferson County has elicited renewed calls from a financial analyst for investors to be cautious when buying debt sold by issuers from Alabama.

With tax-exempt yields at or near 2011 lows, investors have been balking at stingy nominal yields in recent weeks. But ­strategists say buying ­opportunities abound for those willing to buy lower-rated bonds.

Investors this past week returned to their acquired habit of pulling money out of municipal bond mutual funds.

The municipal market can expect about $5 billion in new issuance this week, making it the third week in a row to see volume at that relatively subdued level. Last week saw a revised $5.11 billion, following a revised $7.8 billion the week before.

After pulling in $2.98 billion last week, tax-exempt money market funds lost $1.84 billion and settled with $307.71 billion in total net assets for the week ended June 13, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.