Buy side

Stronger inflows made their way into municipal bond mutual funds, at $306 million for the week of May 15.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes were again mixed the week ended May 16.

Tax-exempt money market funds had a hard time holding onto what little inflows they regained last week as $1.72 billion exited the industry and total net assets settled at $258.36 billion in the week ended May 13, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

For Bill Walsh, there isn't much room in a retail investor's muni bond portfolio for volatility or variability. That's why the 33-year municipal market veteran and president of Hennion & Walsh prefers high-quality paper and low risk for his pre-retiree clients, as well as personalized portfolio planning that is tied to clients' life goals and objectives.

New deals have arrived, but the tenor the municipal market has taken on has moved toward one of higher yields.

The municipal market is waiting for the week's primary issuance to arrive Tuesday and set a tone for yields.

As this year's note season ramps up, market participants expect strong demand and steady levels of issuance with last year's seasonal total of almost $39 billion.

Following Friday's shellacking, the municipal market has largely paused to catch its collective breath. Participants report activity in trades of smaller size, as the market overall is slackening somewhat to get deals done.

The municipal market sees traces of activity Monday, showing a slightly softer market.

Municipal market volume may improve this week from last, though municipal experts say issuance continues to be thin for this time of the year as the spring reinvestment season approaches.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw inflows into weekly-reporting funds, at $22 million, for the first time in 10 weeks.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes were mixed the week ended May 9.

Moody's Investors Service said the settlement between MBIA Inc. and Bank of America Corp. is a credit positive for the company and its subsidiaries, but kept their ratings on review for downgrade.

Modest inflows arrived on the heels of the $4.49 billion that escaped in the week ended April 29 — typically the tail end of heavy seasonal outflows associated with individuals and corporations paying income tax debts to Uncle Sam.

Frank Chin, co-head of public finance at Citi, is a 35-year muni bond veteran who worked in a period of dramatic change that has shaped the aviation and muni bond industries.

A $300 million Illinois revenue offering will lead the activity in the primary market this week as part of an estimated $4.97 billion in new volume, which is on the lighter side compared due to the absence of large, billion-dollar deals that have dominated the calendar in recent weeks.

For buyers, the allure of attractive yields, diversification, and liquidity drowned out the project risks tied to investing in the Iowa Fertilizer Co.'s $1.2 billion of junk-bond paper.

Speakers at the National Federation of Municipal Analysts on Thursday discussed warning signs that risk is stratospheric on high risk capital-intensive projects like fertilizer, desalination and ethanol plants.

Highmark Inc., which closed on a $604 million deal to take over teetering West Penn Allegheny Health System, is now under rating agency glare.

The U.S. faces several significant challenges in the water and wastewater sectors including aging infrastructure, a water supply-demand imbalance and an unsustainable funding gap, a new Ernst and Young report found.