Bond Outflows Continue With Worst Week of Month

Municipal bond mutual funds that report weekly had a $2.14 billion outflow in the week ended Aug. 21, according to Lipper FMI numbers, the 13th consecutive week of investor withdrawal and the biggest reduction this month.

Total assets in muni funds reporting weekly flows fell to $286 billion from $291 billion last week, extending to the seventh week a slide that began in the week ended July 3. The value of the holdings of those funds fell $2.5 billion. Last week they dropped by $1.1 billion.

High-yield municipal outflows also hastened their fall, with $460 million pulled this week, more than twice as much as last week’s $217 million of outflows.

Long-term bond funds that report their flows weekly had an outflow of $1.49 billion, or 65% greater than the $903 million of withdrawals the week before.

The four-week moving average for all municipal bond mutual funds that report flows weekly was $1.64 billion of outflows, the biggest average since the week ended July 17.

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