Markets

Tax-exempt money market funds saw inflows of $3.19 billion for the week ending Jan. 12, settling at $503.24 billion in total assets, according to the Money Fund Report. The total was slightly higher than the previous week, which saw inflows of $8.23 billion and settled at $500.05 billion.

Putnam Investments last week delayed the mergers of four municipal bond funds, saying turbulent markets have rendered the plan imprudent for now.

As the first quarter begins to take shape and the municipal market faces $16.89 billion of 30-day visible supply, a handful of issuers plan to test the primary market with sizable deals amid thriving demand for attractive returns, despite last week's drop in yields.

Investors poured money into municipal bond mutual funds last week for the first time in nearly four months, possibly stanching a bloodletting that began in September.

Considering he just sold a property he never made a penny off for a price tag in the six figures, Kevin Olson is feeling bittersweet.

UBS Global Asset Management next week hopes to fend off a shareholder revolt seeking to wrest control of a closed-end municipal bond mutual fund from the beleaguered bank.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes declined as investors returned to work after the holidays and finished the week to date with four consecutive firmer sessions.

Tax-free money market funds rang in 2009 with inflows of $8.23 billion, the highest single-week gain since the massive fourth-quarter outflows spurred by the national economic crisis. As a result, the funds reached $500.05 billion in total assets for the week ending Jan. 5, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Pacific Investment Management Co. has unfrozen all but one of the eight dividends on municipal bond mutual funds it was forced to postpone last month.

A rally in the municipal bond market to close out 2008 enabled Pacific Investment Management Co. last week to pay a previously postponed dividend on a closed-end muni fund.