Markets

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association will no longer recommend early closes on trading days before most holidays to allow more continuous access to trading liquidity.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds persisted last week - albeit at a slower pace - as state and local government debt continued to gain traction among retail investors.

Nearly all of The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined this week, as tax-exempt bonds firmed up in nearly all sessions and new-issue supply lightened substantially from last week’s deluge.

Death and disease know no recession. Hospitals do.

Outflows of $1.87 billion for the week ending March 30 caused tax-exempt money market funds to start the second quarter with $482.57 billion in total assets, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

WASHINGTON - Continuing care retirement communities face more rating downgrades than upgrades in 2009 because of limited access to capital, slower unit re-occupancy caused by falling real estate values, and significantly reduced liquidity due to losses on investments, Fitch Ratings said yesterday.

The composition of municipal bonds coming to market is making it harder for some investors to diversify their portfolios.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department extended its $3 trillion temporary guarantee program for money market mutual funds through Sept. 19 to provide continued reassurance for investors.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds continued to accelerate last week as state and local government debt rallied amid an upsurge in the broader financial markets.

The municipal market faces a calendar of $4.59 billion of new debt this week, smaller but still sizable, after devouring the $6.5 billion California general obligation sale last week with only a slight uptick in yields, according to data from Thomson Reuters.