Buy side

Net outflows among tax-exempt money market funds were down to $203.1 million and total net assets settled at $282.48 billion for the week ended Feb. 4.

The total amount of upgrades from Standard & Poor's continued to outpace the amount of downgrades during the fourth quarter of 2012, making the year a mostly positive one for rating changes.

The trustee for bankrupt American Airlines Inc.'s $1.4 billion of New York City airport revenue bonds hopes to submit a final settlement agreement after a majority of bondholders endorsed the terms.

Hospitals will likely continue to come to market to take advantage of low interest rates and strong investor interest despite uncertainty tied to federal deficit talks and implementation of the new federal health care law, Wells Fargo says in a report.

Fitch Ratings assigned more downgrades than upgrades during the fourth quarter of 2012, continuing the trend for the 16th consecutive quarter.

Following an eventful week where the tax-exempt market saw repeated softness, the second large financing in as many weeks was postponed, and the Federal Open Market Committee announced it would stand pat, state and local municipalities are preparing to pare down issuance this week.

Municipal bond mutual funds continued to see inflows, though the numbers fell for a third straight week, to $574 million for the week of Jan. 30.

The Bond Buyer weekly yield indexes were narrowly mixed the week ended Jan. 31.

It's a new year, but talk of municipal bond issuance still revolves around the same subject: refundings. Long-term muni bond volume for January jumped 39% over the same period one year earlier.

Outflows of $3.43 billion continued to whittle down tax-free money market funds in the week ended Jan. 28 as total net assets settled at $282.68 billion after the third steady week of losses.

2012 was a good year for municipal bond mutual funds, approaching the robust overall returns seen in 2011. Muni funds with long maturities that focused on high yield performed best.

The outlook for the water and sewer sector is mostly stable for this year, although utilities will face rate and drought pressures, said Standard & Poor's.

In his more than 25 years on the municipal bond desk at Merrill Lynch and BlackRock, Peter Hayes has had front-row seats to some of the biggest changes in asset management, and in particular, how they've affected the municipal bond industry. He brings those to bear in his analysis for 2013.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency may make little headway into breaking up the "big three," but it may trigger changes in operations by Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings, according to a municipal analyst.

The Bond Buyer weekly yield indexes were narrowly mixed the week ended Jan. 24.

Inflows to municipal bond mutual funds, while still robust, have fallen for a second straight week, to $871 million from funds that report their flows weekly.

After downgrading Assured Guaranty, Moody's Investors Service has taken action on the short-term and long-term ratings of 78 variable rate demand bonds.

Tax-exempt money market funds continued their downward as they reported $2.44 billion of outflows, for the second week in a row of net outflows.

The large scale changes sweeping the nonprofit health care sector, chief among them changes in payment methods, are driving the record-setting consolidation trend among hospitals, Fitch Ratings says.

Two hospitals in Chicago's western suburbs — Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare and Edward Hospital & Health Services — are the latest to merge, joining the two-year-old surge nationally of not-for-profit healthcare consolidation.