Markets

As January comes to a close, a pair of New York deals - one to finance a new baseball stadium - and a utility offering in the nation's capital are expected to be the largest deals priced in conjunction with an estimated $2.975 billion in new competitive and negotiated volume, according to Thomson Reuters.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Naples, Fla.-based Wasmer, Schroeder & Co. has hired a new managing director and fixed-income strategist to run the firm's new office in Philadelphia.

It was one of the most tumultuous years in the history of the municipal bond market for tax-exempt portfolio managers.

Investors six weeks ago were practically unanimous in believing municipal bonds were cheap. Now some are not so sure.

Tax-exempt money market funds suffered outflows of $2.14 billion, ending the week of Jan. 19 with $501.1 billion in total assets, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com of Westborough, Mass.

Nearly all of The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes rose this week, ending the municipal market's string of gains since the beginning of 2009.

Fat yields, low inflation, and a turbulent stock market led to the largest cash influx into municipal bond mutual funds in more than half a year.

Issuers in Texas and the Northeast - led by Connecticut - will take center stage in the primary market this week when they deliver a handful of sizable deals as part of an estimated $3.71 billion in total competitive and negotiated volume, according to Thomson Reuters.

A municipal bond fund yesterday elected simultaneously to fire and not to fire UBS Global Asset Management Inc. as its adviser.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes fell sharply this week - the one-year note index hit a record low - as yields dropped in every session.