Investors continue to pull money from municipal bond mutual funds. Muni funds that report their flows weekly had net outflows of $296 million in the week ended May 25, according to Lipper FMI.
Last week’s numbers, when investors withdrew just $108 million from muni funds, again made it look as though the market was finally poised for a week of inflows. But instead, this week marked the 28th in a row that investors pulled money out of weekly reporting funds. Still, the pace of outflows remained relatively small. Only three weeks ago, investors withdrew almost $800 million.
Assets for funds that report their flows weekly hovered around $316 billion for the second straight week, while the value of the funds’ holdings edged up by $172 million. That is a far cry from increases of at least $1.6 billion that funds saw the previous five weeks. Prices for muni bonds over the past week mostly stalled. It was the eighth week in a row that net-asset values gained.
Among all municipal bond mutual funds that report their flows weekly, the four-week moving average dropped to a $323.7 million from a $395.6 million outflow the week before.
