Buy side

Issuers in Texas and the Northeast - led by Connecticut - will take center stage in the primary market this week when they deliver a handful of sizable deals as part of an estimated $3.71 billion in total competitive and negotiated volume, according to Thomson Reuters.

A municipal bond fund yesterday elected simultaneously to fire and not to fire UBS Global Asset Management Inc. as its adviser.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes fell sharply this week - the one-year note index hit a record low - as yields dropped in every session.

Tax-exempt money market funds saw inflows of $3.19 billion for the week ending Jan. 12, settling at $503.24 billion in total assets, according to the Money Fund Report. The total was slightly higher than the previous week, which saw inflows of $8.23 billion and settled at $500.05 billion.

Putnam Investments last week delayed the mergers of four municipal bond funds, saying turbulent markets have rendered the plan imprudent for now.

As the first quarter begins to take shape and the municipal market faces $16.89 billion of 30-day visible supply, a handful of issuers plan to test the primary market with sizable deals amid thriving demand for attractive returns, despite last week's drop in yields.

Investors poured money into municipal bond mutual funds last week for the first time in nearly four months, possibly stanching a bloodletting that began in September.

Considering he just sold a property he never made a penny off for a price tag in the six figures, Kevin Olson is feeling bittersweet.

UBS Global Asset Management next week hopes to fend off a shareholder revolt seeking to wrest control of a closed-end municipal bond mutual fund from the beleaguered bank.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes declined as investors returned to work after the holidays and finished the week to date with four consecutive firmer sessions.

Tax-free money market funds rang in 2009 with inflows of $8.23 billion, the highest single-week gain since the massive fourth-quarter outflows spurred by the national economic crisis. As a result, the funds reached $500.05 billion in total assets for the week ending Jan. 5, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Pacific Investment Management Co. has unfrozen all but one of the eight dividends on municipal bond mutual funds it was forced to postpone last month.

A rally in the municipal bond market to close out 2008 enabled Pacific Investment Management Co. last week to pay a previously postponed dividend on a closed-end muni fund.

With the wreckage of 2008 in the rearview mirror, issuers will start boosting the supply of muni debt this week as investors continue their flight to quality.

Nearly all The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes declined again during the past week as a year-end rally continued to push up prices for municipal bonds, particularly high-quality debt.

The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes declined last week, as tax-exempts firmed in each of the abbreviated week's sessions in advance of the Christmas holiday.

Weekly reporting municipal bond mutual funds had a net outflow of $993 million during the period ending Dec. 17, AMG Data Services reported.

With the Christmas holiday arriving later this week, a year-end lull has settled over the muni market that is likely to last at least until the second week of January as the market puts what has become one of the most eventful and tumultuous years behind it.

As 2008 begins to wind down, holiday-minded investors withdrew $2.94 billion from tax-free money market funds for the week ending Dec. 15, according to the Money Fund, a service of iMoneyNet.com of Westborough, Mass.

After several weeks of continuously rising yields, the municipal market rebounded in a dramatic way this week, as nearly all The Bond Buyer's weekly yield indexes showed sizeable declines.