Buy side

The rating agencies may be poised to give California bondholders a breather. The bond market is not.

Outflows of tax-exempt money market funds inched down to $2.17 billion and settled at $385.44 billion in total assets for the week ending Feb. 8, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service are maintaining their negative outlooks on the nonprofit health care sector, warning that the industry faces a slew of pressures ranging from risks associated with variable-rate debt to the uncertainty of national health care reform and the likelihood of state and federal reimbursement cuts over the next 12 to 18 months.

Moody’s Investors Service issued a report this week warning that it remains pessimistic about airports and is keeping a negative outlook based on expectations for the next 12 to 18 months.

In proposing to renew the Build America Bonds program, the Obama administration last week set an audacious goal: more benefit at the same cost.

Higher education, transportation, essential services, and Build America Bond offerings feature in the market this week as part of an estimated $5.36 billion in new volume, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

After slowing from the massive outflows of two weeks ago, the losses of tax-exempt money market funds inched up to $3.37 billion and total assets settled at $387.61 billion for the week ended Feb. 1, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The federal government expects to recoup through taxes most of the subsidies it pays on Build America Bonds, according to the federal budget released this week.

All The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined this week as the market firmed up in all the week’s sessions.

Stock market volatility is not the top item on the list of things municipal bond investors worry about.

AUSTIN — Not yet a year after Build America Bonds began to lift municipal debt issuance to its second-highest volume on record, issuers and brokers are finding that they must commit more time to educating potential investors who make up an increasingly diverse base of buyers, experts told The Bond Buyer’s Texas Public Finance Conference yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will recommend making permanent the Build America Bonds program in its fiscal 2011 budget proposal Monday, a Treasury spokesperson said Friday night.

Why try to match the market when you can beat it?

Issuers in New York and Massachusetts are headed to the primary market with large financings this week earmarked for transportation, environmental, and education purposes as part of a $4.11 billion in expected new volume, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

The pace of new money flooding into municipal bond mutual funds appears to be picking up again after a lull.

Retail investors have much less apprehension about the municipal bond market heading into 2010 than they had at the start of 2009, according to market participants.

All The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes rose this week, as tax-exempts weakened in nearly all the past few sessions, particularly on the long end of the curve.

After yield-hungry investors yanked nearly $7.7 billion from tax-exempt money market funds last week, outflows slowed to $2.65 billion the week ending Jan. 25, leaving total assets at $390.97 billion, according to the Money Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday voted 4 to 1 to approve a series of changes to its Rule 2a-7 on money market funds aimed at boosting the resilience of funds during market crises, and promised to move forward with additional rules in the future.

The Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp. and Illinois will each bring billion-dollar financings to the primary market this week that will contribute to a $5.47 billion slate in estimated new volume, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.