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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One underwriter called it a "violent inversion," given that the short end of the municipal and Treasury yield curves were so dislocated.
April 25 -
Even though yields have moved to higher ground, some participants say that even cheaper levels are needed to bring about more retail conviction. Muni-to-UST ratios are still rich.
April 20 -
Strong demand in the primary market is leading to the oversubscription of many new issues. Municipals and USTs were better again as macroeconomic concerns pressure equities.
April 12 -
Despite the tumult and uncertainty in the first quarter, experts say the second quarter offers strong fundamentals and credit quality, as well as yield compensation, especially on the long end.
April 11 -
"Folks are aware of possible pressure that could weigh on the market, but attitudes are still generally more constructive than negative at this time," says Tom Kozlik of HilltopSecurities.
March 31 -
Outflows continued as Refinitiv Lipper reported $194.097 million was pulled from municipal bond mutual funds in the week that ended Wednesday after $427.082 million of outflows the week prior.
March 30 -
Municipals' strong fundamentals and high credit quality combined with market inefficiencies and dislocations present opportunities.
March 27 -
After a tumultuous week, expect another ahead, said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics.
March 21 -
Municipals should continue to be part of banks' high-quality portfolio of assets, but some think ownership may be curtailed by the banking collapse.
March 21 -
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank clouds the economic landscape and complicates monetary policy decisions but it's a long way off from the troubles banks and broker-dealers faced in the 2008 financial crisis.
March 17 -
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank won't impact the Fed or the market enough to cause rates to drop and refunding volume to significantly increase, according to muni experts.
March 16 -
"The muni market is no different than others, where fear and greed drive the trends," said Peter Delahunt, StoneX's managing director.
March 14 -
The two-year UST is now a full point above the 10-year UST, something that hasn't happened since 1981.
March 7 -
The "week's substantial primary market calendar of $10-plus billion will be a big test for where market demand stands," said Tom Kozlik, head of public policy and municipal strategy at HilltopSecurities Inc.
March 3 -
Outflows returned, with the Investment Company Institute reporting investors pulled $1.148 billion from mutual funds in the week ending Feb. 22, after $931 million of inflows the previous week.
March 1 -
The availability of higher yields has brought some investors into the market — even though volume in the primary and secondary markets are on the thin side and the municipal market is a bit of a mixed bag right now.
February 27 -
The public finance industry veteran brings his experience to the minority owned investment banking and advisory firm.
February 22 -
Investors will be greeted Monday with a new-issue calendar estimated at $3.603 billion.
February 17 -
Refinitiv Lipper reported $68.054 million was pulled from municipal bond mutual funds in the week that ended Wednesday after $775.006 million of inflows the week prior.
February 16 -
"Markets were expecting (hoping, praying) to get further confirmation that a peak is in and the decline is at least steady, if not accelerating," said Jan Szilagyi, CEO and co-founder of Toggle AI.
February 14
