Buy side

Cash flows into municipal bond mutual funds last week were at the slowest pace since early in the financial crisis.

Underwriters are bracing for a challenging and busy week as a hefty $10.22 billion of new municipal volume heads to the primary market, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

Build America Bonds have entered a world of their own. As the market braces for a blitz of taxable state and local government debt sales to close out the year, some experts expect the already-shaky correlations between BABs and other assets to break down.

Both tax-exempt and taxable money market funds lost cash in the weeks ending Nov. 1 and 2. Tax-exempt funds saw noticeably trimmed outflows compared with last week, while the taxable losses are in stark contrast to the previous week's short-lived period of inflows.

Heavy supply trumped easy monetary policy this week as muni yields mostly drifted higher despite the announcement of a second quantitative easing campaign from the Federal Reserve.

Dupree Funds is launching a taxable municipal bond fund this week, just the second effort at creating a mutual fund devoted to Build America Bonds.

Money market funds continue to waive big chunks of their management fees as yields on cash instruments remain too low to charge the full amount.

Build America Bonds will continue to dominate the primary market and volume will continue to seesaw this week as issuers get ready to price nearly $7 billion, down significantly from the nearly $10 billion that arrived last week.

Flows into municipal bond mutual funds remained steady last week in the face of a rough week for bonds.

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes increased this week, driven by two considerably softer sessions.

Tax-exempt money market funds declined by $1.25 billion to settle at $326.73 billion in total assets the week ending Oct. 25, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Municipal bonds’ performance versus Treasuries over the next few months is up to the Federal Reserve.

The stream of cash into municipal bond mutual funds rebounded last week after a month or so of decidedly slowing inflows.

As investors continue to struggle with low absolute yields, issuers in the Northeast and California will dominate most of the primary market with relatively large financings — led by $800 million from the Bay Area Toll Authority — as part of an estimated $10.6 billion of new, long-term volume, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

Water utility bonds might not be as safe as everyone thinks.

Municipal bonds yields weakened a touch during the week as a slug of new debt came to market at a time of low nominal yields.

Outflows among tax-exempt money market funds rose to $2.31 billion in the week ending Oct. 18, causing total net assets to recede to $327.99 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The hassles associated with Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcies will suppress the number of filings, despite municipal revenues still being well below pre-recession levels, ­experts say.

The flow of cash washing into the municipal bond mutual fund industry continues to slow down, to what one important measure counts as the slowest pace since January 2009.

Volume will continue to level off from the highs of two weeks ago as $7.97 billion of municipal debt gets ready to sell this week, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.