Markets

Essential service, health care, housing, and transportation offerings will dominate the primary market as issuers look to finance a variety of utility needs, hospital facilities, and road and housing projects in a week when new volume is pegged at $7.37 billion, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

The stream of money flowing into municipal bond mutual funds picked up a little last week, but investors continue to cash out of short-term funds even past tax season.

Nearly all of The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined this week amid a light new-issue calendar and somewhat lackadaisical interest in the secondary.

Tax-exempt money market fund outflows ebbed by nearly $1 billion this week, but still saw $4.44 billion pour out of the market as funds settled with $358.65 billion in total assets for the week ending April 26, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

California’s general obligation bonds have caught fire since Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings slapped higher ratings on the state’s credit earlier this month.

Wherever the money’s going, it’s not going to municipal bond mutual funds.

Volume will be noticeably lighter and smaller-sized offerings will take the spotlight this week in lieu of the meatier deals that have dominated primary activity recently.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced yesterday that it has fined HSBC Securities Inc. $1.5 million and U.S. Bancorp Investments Inc. $275,000 to settle sales-practice violations for municipal and other auction-rate securities the firms sold to retail customers.

All of The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes on long-term debt declined this week, as municipals firmed up in nearly every session.