Buy side

Susannah Page, a former director in the municipal research sector at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has joined Roosevelt & Cross Inc.

Municipal funds reported outflows for the second week in a row after six-straight weeks of inflows.

Tax-exempt money market funds had outflows of another $1.48 billion as total net assets dipped to $268.81 billion in the week ended March 31.

The second quarter will begin as the first quarter ended, with volume this week on the sparse side.

Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer anticipate long-term new volume will hover around $4.19 billion this week, versus last week's revised $4.78 billion reported by Thomson Reuters. The dearth of supply is frustrating for some traders.

The six-week streak of municipal bond fund inflows has ended as concern over rising interest rates weighed on the market.

For yet another year, uncertainty surrounding the potential loss or cap of the municipal tax exemption concerned panelists at the National Municipal Bond Summit.

Continuing a recent pattern, $195 million trickled out of tax-exempt money market funds as total net assetsdipped to $270.29 billion in the week ended March 24, according to The MoneyFund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Municipal strategists are recommending non-traditional ways to manage the risk of rising interest rates after a surge in the price of short term bonds.

Expectations for rising interest rates, continued low supply, and credit spread tightening are prompting municipal portfolio managers preparing for the second quarter to tweak the duration and credit quality of their tax-exempt holdings, while keeping a wary eye on the economy.

A trio of financings from California, Georgia, and New York will lead the primary market as the first quarter winds down with another week of meagre supply.

Municipal mutual funds reported inflows slowed to $107.3 million in the week ended March 20 from $223.8 million of inflows the week before. Assets of all weekly reporting municipal funds increased to $282.32 billion from $282.2 billion, Lipper FMI reported.

Tax-exempt money market funds' outflows resumed as $139.5 million trickled out of the funds and total net assets dipped to $270.48 billion in the week ended March 17.

Despite a sharp drop in refunding opportunities for many issuers, Phoenix expects to see savings of 9.8% or $14.2 million from a $132 million deal this week.

Volume will decline to a little more than $3 billion this week as the market takes a breather after deals from Puerto Rico, California and Chicago inflated last week's pricing calendar.

Municipal bond funds' inflows more than doubled for the week ending March 13, surging to $223.79 million from $99.48 million the week before.

Bond Buyer indexes showed softening in the week ended March 13 as Treasury values climbed.

Tax-exempt money market funds generated $1.98 billion of inflows as total net assets grew to $270.62 billion in the week ended March 10, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

While much of Puerto Rico's $3 billion general obligation bond issue Tuesday may be scooped up by nontraditional muni buyers such as hedge funds, retail investors in one case have actually been restricted from buying the island's new debt.

JPMorgan and Charles Schwab have extended an agreement to provide Schwab's clients with access to municipal bonds issued by JPMorgan.

Analysts are divided on whether Puerto Rico's unusually frank disclosures before its $3 billion bond issue scheduled for Tuesday will help or hurt the sale.