Buy side

Lebenthal & Co. said it will begin trading on MuniAxis, its new platform for odd-lot municipal bond transactions, as the market opens on Dec. 12.

Investors endorsed Illinois’ pension restructuring legislation with state paper trading at tighter spreads while rating agencies, though cautious, called the overhaul a positive step.

California water and sewer utilities have performed well in the past year, with the average agency rated AA, according to Fitch Ratings.

Massachusetts will hold its third annual investor conference, which Treasurer Steven Grossman touts as art of the commonwealth's enhanced investor disclosure program.

After 14 straight quarters of revenue growth, most U.S. states are heading into the new year with a stable outlook even as local governments will continue to feel the financial pressures they experienced over the course of the economic downturn, according to Fitch Ratings.

The municipal market is struggling to tread water Monday as light new-issue volume battles against fading Treasury yields to provide direction.

Tax-exempt money market funds had $1.08 billion in outflows, reducing total net assets to $262.74 billion in the week ended Nov. 25, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Yields in the municipal market have started Monday somewhat weaker as they search for traction.

Municipal issuance is expected to surge in the post-holiday primary market, led by a $1.2 billion revenue sale from the New York State Tobacco Settlement Authority.

Mitre Media plans the beta launch in February of a web-based tool designed to connect buyers and sellers, in the latest online marketing venture aimed at munis.

A bankruptcy Court judge said he expects to rule by Wednesday on American Airlines' request for final clearance to merge with US Airways Group Inc. and exit Chapter 11.

Muni investors will have to save their appetites for the Thanksgiving Day feast, as volume in the primary market will be unusually thin in the holiday shortened week.

Richard Ciccarone — a prominent voice for buyside municipal research — will retire from his post as chief research officer at McDonnell Investment Management LLC to devote more time to expand his Merritt Research database and -he hopes — to carve out more leisure time in his day.

Municipal bond mutual funds recorded outflows for the 26th straight week, at $770 million, numbers from Lipper FMI showed.

The weekly average yield to maturity of the Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, decreased three basis points this week, to 5.08% for the week ending Nov. 21, 2013, but it remains above its 5.07% average from two weeks ago.

The total net assets of tax-exempt money market funds continued to see-saw as they inched up by $561.5 million to $263.82 billion in the week ended Nov. 18, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Standard & Poor's upgraded the rating on California's economic recovery bonds to AA from A-plus, with a stable outlook.

Long-term muni funds are having their worst year since 2008, as rising interest rates and headlines about Detroit's bankruptcy filing and Puerto Rico's fiscal problems fueled outflows of investor money.

Detroit has not reallocated payments for its unlimited-tax general obligation bonds because those bonds are tied up in federal mediation talks, the city said Monday.

American Airlines will ask a bankruptcy court to approve an agreement with federal regulators that settles the government's antitrust lawsuit against American's proposed merger with US Airways Group Inc.