Markets

Tax-free money market funds continued to seesaw during the week ending Aug. 30, declining $2.84 billion to $337.91 billion in total assets on the heels of nearly $600 million the previous week, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

If there’s a day of reckoning on the horizon for municipal closed-end funds, the market hasn’t spotted it as investors continue to fork over a premium for the trusts.

BlackRock has raised more than $1 billion for a closed-end fund devoted to Build America Bonds, creating the largest public vehicle offering investors exposure to the new class of taxable municipal debt.

Municipal bond mutual funds reported another healthy slug of new money last week as demand for high-quality fixed income continued to drive investment flows.

Investors clamoring for new supply will be faced with slim pickings this week when long-term volume in the tax-exempt market sinks to an estimated $2.61 billion — less than half of last week’s total — as trading and underwriting begins to wind down ahead of Labor Day, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer’s yield indexes declined this week, with two reaching 43-year lows, as tax-exempt yields plunged to record lows in three sessions during the week.

Outflows slowed to $597.3 million the week ending Aug. 23 after hemorrhaging $4.99 billion the week before, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. Total assets declined slightly to $340.75 billion from $341.34 billion.

J.J. Kenny Drake has launched three new municipal total-return indexes intended for use as benchmarks by mutual funds, private account managers, swaps traders and exchange-traded funds.