Public finance

Natixis Global Asset Management, which recently acquired McDonnell Investment Management, has launched a new municipal bond fund.

MASSACHUSETTS

IDAHO

The South Carolina Alliance to Fix Our Roads has begun to lobby for an increase in the state's motor fuel tax to fund more than $50 billion in needed transportation improvements.

Table as of: 12/31/2012 10:15 AM Invisible Supply Issuer and purpose Amount

Long-term municipal bond volume rose modestly for the month of December, closing the door gently on a year that saw record low interest rates spur an upsurge in refundings.

The Indiana Finance Authority finalized its agreement and reached commercial close on a deal with WVB East End Partners to design and build the state's part of the massive bi-state Ohio River Bridges Project.

IOWA

The Public-Private Partnership sector will experience broad but slow growth in the coming year, experts predict.

Volume in the municipal bond market should climb incrementally from the holiday week, to $161.3 million, up from total sales of just $14.0 million last week.

INDIANA

For a second consecutive week, flows to muni bond mutual funds got hammered. Funds that report their flows weekly recorded outflows of $423 million for the week ended Dec. 26.

Slight activity in the municipal market during the holiday week left tax-exempt yields mostly unchanged since last Friday, but accounted for mostly lower indexes.

Traders took a varied view of the municipal market Thursday. While some secondary market traders reported a decent amount of activity in the intermediate part of the muni yield curve throughout the day's session, others said they heard little more than crickets over the span.

Healthcare bond issuance is expected to continue its increase next year, with an estimated $34 billion, according to a BofA Merrill Lynch report.

Columbus, Ohio, Auditor Hugh J. Dorrian intends to ask for authority to refund up to $475 million of Build America Bonds and recovery zone economic development bonds if federal subsidies are cut under sequestration or in a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Moderate trading in the secondary market continues to characterize an otherwise quiet session for the municipal market Thursday.

Poseidon Resources, the builders of a seawater desalination plant in California, pulled off a $734 million bond sale in the midst of a massive sell-off.

The municipal market faces another day of modest trading and trace elements of issuance reaching the primary. In the secondary, though, there is activity in the intermediate part of the yield curve.

ALABAMA