Mutual funds

Markets took the news that it will soon be appropriate to increase the Fed funds target rate at a slower pace as good news.

The negotiated calendar this week is very light due to the Thanksgiving holiday, with only four deals above $100 million.

Issuance shrinks to $722 million while Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply sits at little more than $7 billion.

Municipals improved again Thursday, pushing the 10-year yield firmly below 3%, while Refinitiv Lipper reported $604.704 million of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday.

As market participants navigate through the remaining weeks of 2022, Jeff Lipton, managing director of credit research at Oppenheimer Inc., expects munis to maintain their outperformance over USTs

Munis were in their own lane while broader markets were mixed Monday as participants digested various Fed officials' comments on inflation and rate hike schedules.

Refinitiv Lipper reported $2.537 billion of outflows from municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday after $2.389 billion the week prior.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw more losses on Wednesday with the Investment Company Institute reporting another week of multi-billion-dollar outflows, bringing year-to-date losses to $123.3 billion.

The market has seen outflows for 13 straight weeks, per Refinitiv Lipper, but Nuveen strategists Anders S. Persson and John V. Miller said "selling is due primarily to investors harvesting tax losses."

High-yield saw outflows of $867.067 million after $594.497 million of outflows the week prior while exchange-traded funds saw inflows of $736.967 million after $444.544 million of inflows the previous week.