Investors this past week withdrew money from municipal bond mutual funds at a pace not seen in a month. There were net outflows of $436 million from muni funds that report their flows weekly in the week ended June 1, according to Lipper FMI.
This week marked the 29th in a row that investors pulled money out of weekly reporting funds. Investors withdrew $296 million from muni funds last week. Still, the pace of money leaving municipal bond funds remained relatively slight. Four weeks ago, investors withdrew almost $800 million. For the week ended Jan. 19, they yanked more than $4 billion from the weekly reporters.
Assets for funds that report their flows weekly ticked up to $317 billion from $316 billion the previous two weeks. The value of the holdings for weekly reporting funds climbed by $1.2 billion. That’s a large jump from the $172 million it rose by last week, and was more in line with the increases of at least $1.6 billion that weekly reporting funds saw in the weeks dating back to April 20.
Prices for muni bonds started the past week steady, but firmed across the curve on Wednesday. This week also marked the ninth 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 $233.6 million outflow from a $323.7 million outflow the week before.
