Christine Albano

The agency plans to broaden its current market share and expand into new sectors.

Cooper Howard, director and fixed income strategist for the Charles Schwab Center for Financial Research, shares his thoughts on the intermediate duration with Investors & Investing reporter Christine Albano

LSEG Lipper reported Thursday that investors added $147 million to muni mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday after outflows of $514.5 million the week prior. High-yield saw some outflows, though.

Municipal experts say buying attractively priced tax-exempt securities in the final weeks of 2023 could benefit portfolios well into 2024.

Triple-A yields have fallen up to 95 basis points on the month, supply is up 7.8% year-over-year for November and the month is posting positive returns, which has, in turn, led to well over 3.50% returns year-to-date.

"The market has had a solid tone to it recently even with the strong rally seen this month," Roberto Roffo, managing director and portfolio manager at SWBC Investment Management, said of the Nov. 10 rally where municipal yields in 10 years fell by as much as 40 basis points.

"Everyone is reevaluating and taking a breather after the numbers [on Tuesday]," a New York trader said.

The recent rise in yields has created an opportunity for those investors waiting to "jump into the market," said Roberto Roffo, portfolio manager at SWBC Investment Company.  

A "pillar of the public finance community," Gerdes' extensive career spanned many facets of the industry and he was instrumental in many major building and financing programs for clients.

Vogel's more than three-decade career included his more recent span of 17 years at Neuberger Berman in New York City as a senior vice president beginning in 2006.

"People are just kind of sitting on their hands and being careful because MMD is raising yields every day and people don't know which way this is heading," said John Farawell of Roosevelt & Cross.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $116.737 million was pulled from municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday after $798.474 million of outflows from the funds the previous week.

"I traded in my labor and delivery scrubs for a career in finance when I had an incredible opportunity to intern at Merrill Lynch as a 16-year-old senior at Stuyvesant High School," William Kim said

"I had the opportunity to work with interesting issuers and complex transactions early on in my career, which gave me a solid foundation to build on," Kevin Plunkett said.

Greg Shuman said he favors municipals for being a niche market, its blend of government policy and economics, the quantitative focus of fixed income as an asset class, and the complexity and evolving nature of municipal finance and markets.

While supply this week is "softer," uncertainty and volatility may prevail once more due to "yields still not exciting longer-term investors," said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics.

California and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey held one-day retail order periods for $1 billion-plus issues.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $407.976 million of inflows from municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday after $534.428 million of outflows into the funds the previous week.

He had an extensive career in public finance which largely consisted of structuring municipal bond financings that funded the expansion of airports, healthcare centers and other institutions.

Supply scarcity is helping the market through the Treasury volatility. Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply currently sits at $4.72 billion.