Investors added $238.5 million to municipal bond mutual funds in the week ending Wednesday, following?$1.124 billion of inflows the prior week, according to LSEG Lipper data.
As Congress begins hammering out the budget resolutions that will shape the country's fiscal future, muni lobbyists double down on efforts to keep the tax-exemption in place.
The rising costs of federal debt, an impending budget showdown, and Congressional turmoil is highlighting the complex relationship between Treasury securities and municipal bonds.
The tax exemption has been in place for more than 110 years, but Republicans say its removal is vital for prolonging many parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Charter schools drove the worst January ever for impairments since Municipal Market Analytics began tracking default trends, the firm said in a Feb. 5 report.
The executive director of the Puerto Rico Oversight Board suggested non-settling bondholders might be offered recoveries of about 4% of the principal due.
Hilltop and other firms say more recent SEC off-channel communications settlements eliminated "costly and burdensome" requirements that were imposed on them.
"Our job is to take that volatility, figure out what's noise, figure out what's reality, and lean into the opportunities as we see them," said Alex Petrone, director of fixed income at Rockefeller Asset Management.
Huntington has hired Dan Kelly as head of municipal underwriting. The industry veteran will bolster the bank's strategy of pursuing larger transactions.
Yields have fallen over the past few weeks, so "any decent excuse that rates move up a little bit after that big rally" may have occurred as the market digested the report ? which was a "little bit of a mixed bag" ? after the initial headline figure, said Jeff MacDonald, EVP and head of fixed income at Fiduciary Trust International.
A state board moved toward instituting salary-based employee premium health insurance payment system as a way to avoid a looming $1.3 billion deficit in the government's health plan budget.
Both houses of the Virginia state government have advanced budget bills that include rebates to taxpayers from surpluses fattened by federal funding and robust tax collections, a trend that concerns policy experts.
In general the bond market is volatile, and fixed income securities carry interest rate risk. (As interest rates rise, bond prices usually fall, and vice versa. This effect is usually more pronounced for longer-term securities.) Fixed income securities also carry inflation risk and credit and default risks for both issuers and counterparties. Unlike individual bonds, most bond funds do not have a maturity date, so avoiding losses caused by price volatility by holding them until maturity is not possible.
Lower-quality debt securities generally offer higher yields, but also involve greater risk of default or price changes due to potential changes in the credit quality of the issuer. Any fixed income security sold or redeemed prior to maturity may be subject to loss.
Before investing, consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Contact Fidelity for a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully.