Secondary bond market

Refinitiv Lipper reported $2.537 billion of outflows from municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday after $2.389 billion the week prior.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw more losses on Wednesday with the Investment Company Institute reporting another week of multi-billion-dollar outflows, bringing year-to-date losses to $123.3 billion.

The market has seen outflows for 13 straight weeks, per Refinitiv Lipper, but Nuveen strategists Anders S. Persson and John V. Miller said "selling is due primarily to investors harvesting tax losses."

Voters will decide on more than $60 billion of bond ballot measures Tuesday with New York voters faced with the largest amount at $4.2 billion.

ICE TMC, part of ICE Bonds, provides market participants access to an all-to-all market for trading munis and other bonds.

Investors will be greeted Monday with a new-issue calendar estimated at $5.268 billion.

High-yield saw outflows of $867.067 million after $594.497 million of outflows the week prior while exchange-traded funds saw inflows of $736.967 million after $444.544 million of inflows the previous week.

Investors pulled $3.843 billion from mutual funds in the week ending Oct. 26 after $3.876 billion of outflows the previous week, according to ICI.

October returns were in the red with the Bloomberg Municipal Index showing a loss of 0.83% for the month, bringing total losses in 2022 to 12.86%. Only May and July saw positive returns for the asset class.

With the Federal Open Market Committee meeting this week and the next week shortened by the bond market observance of Veterans Day, CreditSights strategists said "investors should be prepared for two weeks of subdued new issuance."