Markets

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes were narrowly mixed this week, despite tax-exempt yields rising modestly in each of the week's sessions.

Based on traditional measures of value, the high-quality municipal bond has returned to something approaching normal. Not so for lower-grade bonds.

Issuers in New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania will bring three of the largest deals to the primary market this week amid a relatively small slate of offerings, part of an estimated $3.97 billion planned for the negotiated and competitive markets combined.

Advisors Asset Management Inc. launched the biggest-ever municipal bond unit investment trust earlier this month as a rally in munis lured investors to the company's new low-cost structure.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds slowed a bit last week as a hot streak in munis cooled.

Most of The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes rose during this holiday-shortened week, as the market carried a weaker tone, with yields either remaining flat or slightly increasing in each session.

In his 25 years in the municipal bond industry, James Colby has learned that one obscure corner of the market sometimes offers substantial value for those privy to it. This is one of those times.

Tax-free money market funds fell by $4.31 billion to $482.42 billion for the week ending Feb. 16, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com of Westborough, Mass.

Sizable transportation, health care, utility, and state general obligation deals will highlight a plentiful new-issue calendar that calls for an estimated $4.56 billion in new volume this week, according to Thomson Reuters.

Cash continued flooding municipal bond mutual funds last week as a growing appetite for mild risk continued bolstering the muni market.