Buy side

Reversing the trend of the last two weeks, tax-free money market funds gained $228.3 million and settled at $465.89 billion in total assets for the week ending June 8, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

High-quality municipal bonds do not default. That has been the paradigm for several decades.

Investors continued shoveling rare quantities of cash into municipal bond mutual funds last week.

A pair of deals, one several billion dollars and one nearly a billion, will share the spotlight in the primary market this week as an estimated $11.4 billion in total new-issue volume is expected, according to The Bond Buyer and Ipreo LLC. The mammoth offerings will almost double last week's volume, which was revised to $6.6 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Cash flowed out of tax-free money market funds for the second week in a row, declining by a whopping $3.36 billion and settling at $465.66 billion in total assets for the week ending June 1, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com of Westborough, Mass.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes rose this week as tax-exempts weakened in almost all the week’s sessions.

In a universe of more than 260 closed-end municipal bond funds, Thomas J. Herzfeld likes one. The rest he is selling.

Money continues to flow into municipal bond mutual funds at a record-setting rate as investors become more comfortable exiting ironclad, short-term safe havens.

Investors flush with June 1 coupon and maturity payments looking to reinvest these proceeds at the height of spring reinvestment season this week will be met with a wide selection of new issues.

The most important bonds in California right now are the ones that haven’t been issued yet — and may never be.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes rose this week, reflecting sustained weakness in the municipal market, despite the one-year note index declining to an all-time low.

After a short-lived period of inflows, tax-free money market funds declined by $124.8 million for the week ending May 25, and settled at $469.02 billion in total assets — after two prior weeks of positive cash-flow activity, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com of Westborough, Mass.

The "newness" premium on Build America Bonds has thinned.

Cash continued pouring into municipal bond mutual funds at a record pace last week as investors once again ferried money out of safe havens and put it to work elsewhere.

There will be a small array of new issues in the primary market this week - including a pair of sizable New York deals and a pair of taxable Build America Bond sales.

Most of The Bond Buyer’s yield indexes declined this week, as municipals showed firmness in nearly all the week’s sessions.

Dr. Andrew Kalotay, a man not easily baffled, is baffled by the municipal bond industry.

For a second week in a row, the assets of tax-exempt money market funds increased, gaining $479.9 million to $469.14 billion for the week ending May 18, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Armed with an East Coast operation after its acquisition of Wachovia Corp., Wells Fargo & Co.’s wealth management division says it plans to use an integrated distribution model nationally to increase assets under management and market share.

Ipreo and Morningstar Inc. are partnering to supply Morningstar's fund ownership data to users of Ipreo's Bigdough contact database, the companies said earlier this week.