Buy side

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.

Hedge funds and cross-over investors are expected to devour Puerto Rico's junk-rated sale of general obligation bonds when the $3 billion deal thunders into the primary market, municipal observers said.

Municipal mutual funds reported inflows slowed to $99.48 million in the week ended March 5 from $247 million of inflows the week before. Assets of all weekly reporting municipal funds increased to $281.69 billion, up from $280.11 billion, Lipper FMI reported.

Bond Buyer indexes showed weakening in the week ending Feb. 27.

Some muni strategists are saying investors should look to intermediate and longer term bonds to mitigate interest rate risk, as rising prices for short-term bonds begin to outweigh the protection their maturities offer.

The total net assets of weekly reporting tax-exempt money market funds slipped to $268.64 billion after outflows of $683.2 million in the week ended March 3, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

A $1.1 billion Texas Transportation Commission revenue offering and a $700 million New York City general obligation sale this week will pump some life into the lackluster new-issue market.

The governments of Los Angeles plan to issue $5.5 billion in debt over the next year, Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana told Los Angeles' 2nd Regional Investors Conference

Municipal mutual funds reported inflows slowed to $247 million in the week ended Feb. 26 from $320.04 million of inflows the week before.

Tax-exempt money market funds recaptured more than half of last week's loss as they gained $1.29 billion in new cash, boosting total net assets to $269.33 billion.