Buy side

Tax-exempt money market funds remained in negative territory again this week as total assets declined by $646.9 million to $467.92 billion for the week ending May 4, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com

For investors worried the U.S. Treasury might revoke its promised subsidies to Build America Bonds, Ann-Ellen Hornidge offers some free legal advice: relax.

Fidelity Investments, Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group manage wealth for the largest percentage of U.S. millionaires, according to a survey by Fidelity.

The Reserve Primary Fund broke the buck in September, but despite fears to the contrary, it has not broken the back of the money market fund industry. Click here to read the American Banker article.

The rush of state and local governments into the taxable bond market has prompted reports of significant savings. Just how much savings is a contentious - and complicated - question.

A trio of sizable financings from issuers in California, as well as a large Georgia offering, will be the largest deals to usher in the first full trading week of May as the primary market anticipates an estimated $5.46 billion in total new issuance this week, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer. The issuance comes on the heels of a revised total of $3.62 billion last week, according to Thomson Reuters.

Investors handed over another fat slug of cash to municipal bond mutual funds last week as money continued to flood out of safe havens and into higher-yielding assets.

With outflows totaling $5.94 billion, tax-exempt money market funds settled at $468.57 billion in total assets for the week ending April 27, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Reports that the municipal bond market found its savior may have been premature.

For the past seven years, Peter Demirali has urged clients to put money into taxable municipal bonds — a small, neglected sector of the industry.

By the end of 2007, investors recognized the relationship between municipal bond yields and Treasury yields did not mean what it used to.Click to see larger version of chart.Now, some investors have taken it a step further. Some ignore the relationship altogether.

Investors poured the most money into municipal bond mutual funds in years last week amid a powerful rally in the tax-exempt market.

With underwriters and investors still buzzing about last week's historic Build America Bond blitz in California, the municipal market is gearing up for the arrival of another significant slate - highlighted by $2 billion of Florida bonds - that will bring an estimated $6.28 billion in total issuance to the market in the last week of April, according to Ipreo and The Bond Buyer.

Tender-option bond programs last year lost a lot of money on a controversial premise: that long-term municipal bond yields are fundamentally and inefficiently too high.

Tax-exempt money market funds fell by $6.96 billion to end the week of April 20 with $474.51 billion in total assets, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined this week on the back of a surge of Build America Bonds in the primary market, including more than $5 billion of the new securities from California.

When he decided to retire as team leader of the municipal bond group at OppenheimerFunds Inc. nearly four years ago, Ronald H. Fielding never expected the transition phase to last so long.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds continued last week as fund assets gained steadily.

Call it a bond bonanza.

The Bond Buyer’s weekly yield indexes declined as the municipal market firmed up in nearly all sessions due to strong retail demand and the first two deals containing Build America Bonds were priced in the primary market.