Markets

After a wild fourth quarter rife with technical pressures and ­illiquidity, it turns out municipals mostly may have simply been obeying their old master: ­Treasuries.

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes rose this week in light to moderate secondary trading as activity slowly began to creep back into the market after a holiday lull.

Tax-exempt money market funds started the New Year on a positive note, amassing $3.66 billion in new cash to end the week ending Jan. 3 with $332.16 billion.

No sooner did Build America Bonds become orphaned than they caught fire.

Municipalities will continue their hiatus from borrowing money this week as they are once again slated to sell a meager amount of new debt.

Municipal bond mutual funds coughed up more cash last week as investors continue to take their money out of state and local government debt funds at a record pace.

Tax-free money market funds commanded new money from investors last week — the second straight week of inflows — possibly marking an ebb, or at least a slowdown, to the rush of cash away from money funds the past two years.

Holiday doldrums coupled with a Sunday blizzard that buried much of the Northeast conspired to keep the secondary market very quiet.