This spring’s extended woes for the municipal bond market have still failed to abate and in fact deepened last week, as muni-bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds witnessed a second straight week of billion-dollar investor withdrawals. Muni funds and ETFs reported $1.61 billion in net outflows in the week ended Wednesday, per Lipper data, the largest single-week outflow in six months, after one week ago the same funds saw $1.47 billion in investor withdrawals. The four-week moving average of fund flows fell to a deeply negative $793 million average net outflow. The muni market typically struggles in early spring but is usually in rebound mode by this time of year. Instead this year it got hit by May’s bond sell-off and continues to struggle. The good news is that can now pick up muni closed-end funds at some pretty deep discounts. The iShares S&P National AMT-Free Muni Bond (MUB) fund closed at $107.23 Thursday, down from $108.09 a week earlier and down 3.4% over the past month. The Nuveen Municipal Value (NUV) closed-end fund finished at $9.66, down 40 cents from a week earlier and down 6.5% over the past month.

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