Buy side

Tax season has come and gone, yet the run of outflows from municipal bond mutual funds dragged into its ninth straight week, at $391 million.

All The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes declined the week ended May 2.

Six months after announcing a proposed merger, Trinity Health and Catholic Health East said Thursday they've closed the deal, which will create the second-largest health care provider in the country.

The municipal bond market is rife with investment opportunities, thanks to fourth quarter growth in state tax revenue, U.S. Trust says.

Seasonal outflows continued for tax-exempt money market funds as $4.49 billion escaped the industry and total net assets settled at $259.42 billion in the week ended April 29, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Modest action in the municipal secondary market, particularly out in longer maturities, is propelling an otherwise quiet session.

The largest trend facing the municipal world right now is efforts on multiple fronts to become more transparent, according to speakers at a Wednesday panel at the National Federation of Municipal Analyst's annual conference.

The municipal market started slowly out of the gates Thursday morning as traders reported modest activity in taxable paper in the secondary.

Moody's Analytics, a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation, launched a new CreditView service for the public finance sector.

Long-term municipal bond issuance fell slightly for the month of April, yet still clings to a small increase for the year.

LOS ANGELES - Standard & Poor’s attributes much of the above-average creditworthiness of U.S. state governments to the unique countercyclical economic and fiscal support that the federal government offers the states, while warning that such support may be waning.

With tax season having passed, muni industry watchers anticipate the outflows to fade soon and interest beyond the front end of the yield curve to rise.

A $1.2 billion Iowa financing will headline the primary market activity this week as part of an overall projected volume of almost $5.8 billion, but could face challenges after a Texas fertilizer explosion two weeks ago and mixed reaction to economic news on Friday.

The tax-exempt market struggled to gain momentum all week as a limited primary calendar and uncertainty over the direction of interest rates in the secondary market kept buyers at bay.

After a steep decline in the floating rate notes market following the financial downturn, issuance has been steadily increasing in recent years as issuers and investors find value in the product.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes mostly rose the week ended April 25.

Tax-free money market funds continued to suffer the effects of federal income tax season as investors withdrew $5.58 billion from industry, leaving total net assets at $263.91 billion, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The municipal bond market expects an uptick in issuance for the coming week with total potential volume expected to climb to $7.39 billion.

Different types of general obligation bonds have different types of characteristics and credit risks, which investors need to be aware of, according to a report from Kroll Bond Ratings Agency.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes again declined the week ended April 18.