Christine Albano is a reporter in the Investor’s & Investing beat, which she has covered for the past two decades. She has a wide range of buy side sources in the municipal market and has covered trends affecting retail investors, institutions, municipal mutual funds, tax-exempt money market funds, and the high-yield beat. She has also written about some of the industry’s biggest issues, such as historic defaults in Orange County, Calif., Puerto Rico, and Jefferson County, Ala., as well as the collapse of the variable-rate demand market. In addition, she reported on the subsequent 2008 financial crisis, and the death of municipal bond pioneer Jim Lebenthal. She provided next day coverage of the impact on the municipal bond market of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and recently interviewed The Vanguard Group Inc. founder, former chief executive officer, and investment guru John C. Bogle about the best investing advice for the municipal market.
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A 'perpetual calm' continues to fall over the municipal market as inflows into municipal funds, combined with the shortage of traditional tax-exempt supply, is directing most aspects of daily market activity.
January 22 -
Muni yields have been in a nine-basis point range since the beginning of the year while UST yields have fluctuated more than 20 basis points. With so little supply, muni credit spreads continue to compress.
January 20 -
Tax-exempt performance is dependent on what supply looks like versus taxables. The 30-day visible supply shows more than 30% taxables on tap, though some analysts say the taxable increase makes exempts more attractive.
January 19 -
Friday’s data showed economic weakness. Consumers, the drivers of the economy, pulled back during the holiday season and have exhibited weakening sentiment.
January 15 -
Municipal bonds continue to ignore UST and ICI reports $2.67 billion of inflows. While CPI should stay soft through the first quarter, expectations for future inflation should be considered.
January 13 -
Muni to U.S. Treasury ratios hover near the lowest point in a decade and analysts see little impetus for munis to catch up in the near term.
January 12 -
Municipals were little changed Monday as participants await the larger new-issue calendar while equities and U.S. Treasuries react to news out of Washington and COVID-19 ravages the globe.
January 11 -
Doug Vissicchio, who has nearly three decades of experience, has joined UBS as managing director and head of principal municipal trading to continue the firm's development of its principal municipal trading businesses.
January 7 -
As it reaches its 50th year in business, Ramirez ranks 15th industry wide among all negotiated and competitive underwriters with 47 deals totaling $6.1 billion in 2020.
January 5 -
The municipal market was punctuated by a global pandemic, a controversial U.S. presidential election, and volatility but managed through to end with historic issuance records and better-than-expected returns.
December 31 -
Taxable munis have posted the highest returns among all fixed-income indexes this year, BofA said.
December 22 -
Paltry supply will force the secondary to handle the rest of 2020; New York City taxable general obligation bonds trade up by nearly 20 basis points on intermediate bonds.
December 18 -
The entire municipal exempt yield curve is seeing consolidation with a 125 basis point spread between one and 30 years, and sub-1% yields are holding firm inside of 15 years.
December 17 -
Muni benchmarks were steady while new deals re-priced to lower yields in a tale of two markets. ICI reported more inflows.
December 9 -
Strong technicals, low supply, yield-seekers keep munis outperforming.
December 8 -
A heavier calendar still will not fulfill the $20 billion-plus of December redemptions. Muni/UST 10-year ratios fell to 74% as the UST 10-year came closer to 1.00%.
December 4 -
Until supply increases, year-end demand has munis outperforming. ICI reports another multi-billion week of inflows.
December 2 -
Munis are likely to lag Treasuries in some fashion once year-end empathy settles in mid-month and ratios become a factor.
December 1 -
After volume in November came in around $19 billion, the lowest since 1999, investors look to December.
November 30 -
The Investment Company Institute reported municipal bond funds saw $2.675 billion of inflows in the latest reporting week.
November 25
