Buy side

Sizable transportation, health care, utility, and state general obligation deals will highlight a plentiful new-issue calendar that calls for an estimated $4.56 billion in new volume this week, according to Thomson Reuters.

Cash continued flooding municipal bond mutual funds last week as a growing appetite for mild risk continued bolstering the muni market.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes decreased this week, as municipals were either flat or slightly firmer in each of the week's sessions.

For those investors hoping to take advantage of the plump yields on Puerto Rico's debt, the municipal bond team at Janney Montgomery Scott has some advice: Be careful.

Tax-free money market funds continued to see outflows for the week ending Feb. 9, as total assets declined by $2.2 billion to settle at $486.73 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

If the clouds hovering over the municipal bond industry have a silver lining, portfolio managers say it is investors finally giving them cash to work with when yields are compelling.

Volume is expected to accelerate slightly this week, with $4 billion of negotiated and competitive deals on the calendar, compared with the revised $3.16 billion that ushered in the first week of February, according to Thomson Reuters.

Cash influxes into municipal bond mutual funds accelerated last week as investors increasingly recognized the relative safety and value of state and local government debt.

Outflows from tax-free money market funds slowed to $4.56 billion for the week ending Feb. 2, settling at $488.8 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

As part of an expansion of its suite of municipal bond exchange-traded funds, Van Eck Global launched a high-yield muni ETF yesterday.

Ron Schwartz has been trying to pick the best spot on the yield curve for more than 20 years. His take on where that point is now: smack in the middle.

The tender-option bond programs that imploded last year did not fall victim to bad luck or unforeseeable illiquidity, a study released last week concluded. Rather, the strategies these programs used were doomed from the start.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes declined this week, as the municipal market grew firmer in each of the week's sessions.

Almost a year after barreling past a previously unprecedented milestone, municipal bonds have returned to that milestone - coming from the opposite direction.

After a lull in supply during the last two weeks, the first week of February will kick off with noticeably more vigor thanks to at least two significantly sized deals - a $950 million California school deal and a $614 million general obligation sale in the Southeast.

Inflows into municipal bond mutual funds slowed last week as the muni market drifted lower.

James Colby, senior municipal strategist at Van Eck Global, admits the timing is pretty fortuitous.

Tax-free money market funds lost $7.69 billion - more than triple the outflows of the previous week - causing total assets to settle at $493.41 billion for the week ending Jan. 26, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com of Westborough, Mass.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes rose this week, despite a modest late-week rally that ended a near two-week string of losses.

Philip G. Condon knows his history.