Markets

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes were mixed this week, as an onslaught of more than $10 billion of primary market supply dominated the municipal market landscape.

The assets of tax-exempt money market funds fell by $1.32 billion and settled at $484.44 billion for the week ending March 23, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Investors looking to retire in a decade or two wish they could still bank on 8% annual returns on their portfolios.

Banks across the nation managed to slightly increase their holdings of municipal debt in 2008 and reach their highest level of ownership since 1991, despite the turmoil that transformed the securities and banking industries last year, according to annual information compiled by Highline Data LLC.

After digesting a revised $5.23 billion of new issues last week - highlighted by the mostly oversubscribed $1.54 billion Wisconsin state appropriation financing - California this week will leave an even larger footprint in the primary with its planned $4 billion sale of general obligation bonds as volume soars to an estimated $9.25 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds accelerated last week as state and local government debt continued to gain traction among retail investors.

After one week of inflows, tax-exempt money market funds returned to negative territory, losing $7.3 billion for the week ending March 16 with $485.76 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes mostly fell this week as the Federal Reserve’s plan to support credit markets by buying Treasuries sparked a rally in state and local government debt.

The municipal bond market continued to grow during the fourth quarter in the face of a global credit crisis as retail investors flocked to high-quality state and local government debt.

Wisconsin is expected to thunder into the market a week early with up to $1.5 billion of state-appropriated securities that will refund outstanding 2002 tobacco bonds and deliver a substantial amount of paper to the Midwest market.