Inflows to Muni Bond Funds Persist, at $489 Million

The holidays and year-end are approaching rapidly, leaving investors anxious about where to stash their abundant cash.

With so much uncertainty surrounding the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds, and higher taxes all but a certainty, investors still like what the tax-exempt market holds for them. As such, muni bond mutual funds recorded their fifth straight week of inflows, and their 62nd week of positive flows in the past 66 weeks.

Funds that report their flows weekly recorded inflows of $489 million for the week ended Dec. 5, Lipper FMI numbers show. That’s down a bit from the week ended Nov. 28, which saw inflows of $545 billion from weekly reporting funds.

Muni bond yields budged little from levels that lie a smidge above record territory this week at the 10-year and 30-year parts of the curve. Assets for all muni funds that report their flows weekly rose for an 11th straight week to just under $325 billion from $323.6 billion the week before.

The value of the holdings for weekly reporting funds was positive for a seventh straight week, increasing by $922 million. The week before, it rose by $1.08 billion.

The four-week moving average for all municipal bond mutual funds that report their flows weekly was $702 million of inflows, down from a $797 million gain the week before.

Long-term bond funds that report their flows weekly recorded strong inflows, to the tune of $337 million. This represented a small rise from the $324 million of inflows they reported the week before.

High-yield muni funds saw robust inflows for the week. Flows have been positive for 50 of the previous 54 weeks.

High-yield funds that report weekly saw $212 million in inflows, Lipper said. The previous week, they reported $125 million in inflows.

Assets for high-yield funds that report their flows weekly increased to almost $45.06 billion, up from $44.60 billion the week before.

The value of the holdings for weekly reporting high-yield funds jumped by $246 million. Last week, they rose by $263 million.

The four-week moving average for all high-yield municipal bond funds that report their flows weekly was $193 million of inflows, rising a hair from $185 million the week before. ć

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Buy side
MORE FROM BOND BUYER