Markets

Municipal bond mutual funds last week continued to command new money at a pace that was still high but not quite as high as earlier this year.

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes were mixed during this holiday-shortened week.

Parents picking a charter school for their children want a school they can be confident will not close down. Bondholders want much the same thing.

On the heels of hefty outflows last week, the assets of tax-exempt money market funds dipped by just $649.8 million to settle at $411.57 billion for the week ending Nov. 9, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Brightening economic prospects and improving liquidity helped lift the municipal bond market in the third quarter in spite of numerous credit concerns and the evisceration of the bond insurance industry, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s quarterly report on municipal credit.

The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression has forced many state and local government budgets into a widely publicized vise.

David Rubin, founder of CDR Financial Products Inc., and two colleagues on Friday pleaded not guilty to criminal antitrust, wire fraud and other charges stemming from an alleged conspiracy to rig bids for municipal investment agreements and derivatives contracts for kickbacks.

For the third week in a row, a California issuer will dominate the primary market spotlight with a $1.5 billion financing.

Investors bequeathed another more modest sum of cash to municipal bond mutual funds last week, offering further evidence that the blitz of new money barraging the industry has eased to a more moderate pace.