Markets

Many of the biggest institutions that own municipal bonds beefed up their holdings last year as state and local government debt became something of a preferred asset.

Investors once again entrusted money to municipal bond mutual funds last week after briefly withdrawing money for the first time in well over a year.

Chicago will come to market with a $1.04 billion offering of revenue bonds this week on behalf of Chicago O'Hare International Airport, leading roughly $6.7 billion in expected new issuance, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

Municipal closed-end funds continue to surge to new peaks despite the specter of higher interest rates threatening to throw a wet blanket on all the fun.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes rose this week as weakness inside of 20 years on the municipal yield curve persisted through Wednesday, before subsiding yesterday.

Tax-exempt money market funds recouped some of the outflows they suffered for the week ending April 5, as total assets rose $2.103 billion to $369.44 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch will pay New Jersey $4.87 million and repurchase auction-rate securities sold to investors in a settlement agreement over alleged misinformation regarding the floating-rate securities.

Mitchell Savader traveled to Philadelphia yesterday to deliver a reality check. Numerous newspapers and magazines, including Barron's and the New York Times, have run eye-popping headlines in the past few weeks.