Markets

State and local government tax receipts plunged again in the third quarter as municipalities continued to feel the squeeze from shrinking incomes and tepid sales.

Money market funds coughed up more cash last week as investors continued to embrace risk amid signs of a stabilized economy.

One of the craziest, most transformative years ever in state and local government finance will end with a whimper this week. Municipalities are slated to sell just $74.1 million of bonds this week, according to data from The Bond Buyer and Ipreo LLC, after having floated $611.7 million last week.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes rose last week as a weaker tone permeated the municipal market throughout the holiday-shortened set.

Although Bank of America Merrill Lynch does not foresee municipals repeating this year's performance in 2010, the bank's strategists see a few prominent roles for municipals in their main investment themes for the year.

Municipal bond mutual funds keep garnering new money at a steady clip as investors continue to grow bored waiting on the sidelines.

Even as the approaching holidays are expected to put a seasonal damper on primary market supply, New York's Liberty Development plans to begin marketing $2.59B of escrow bonds tomorrow to meet a year end deadline to sell Liberty bonds for redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.

Most of The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes declined slightly this week, despite weakness in the municipal secondary market through Tuesday.

In the pre-holiday week — and following the first significant inflow activity since early October — investors withdrew $3.48 billion in assets from tax-exempt money market funds, leaving them at $405.25 billion for the week ending Dec. 14, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The Bond Buyer today added a new "advance refunding" calculator to its web site. This sophisticated tool combines analyses of savings and "option value" to help state and local governments maximize the savings they can reap from refunding their outstanding debt.