FMB News and Press, First Trust Managed Municipal ETF From 08/08/19

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So far this year, employers have announced plans to cut 369,832 jobs, a 35.8% increase from the 272,301 cuts announced in the first seven months of last year. It is the highest seven-month total since 2015, when 393,368 cuts were announced. - 2019 July Job Cut Report: 38,845 Cuts in ...

Municipal bonds have seen record flows in 2019. Martin talks to head of BlackRock's municipal strategy about some of the reasons why. Martin: Sean, first set the stage for us. Munis have been on a tear this year. What's behind it? Sean: I would say the most obvious driver has been a ...

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By Patricia Healy, CFA The positive trend of upgrades to downgrades continues. S&P reported on May 8th that upgrades outpaced downgrades by 2.39 to 1 in Q1 2019, which compares to 2.09 to 1 for all of 2018. In our monitoring of rating agencies' actions, this trend appears to have conti...

By Cooper J Howard When you buy a municipal bond, you're making a loan to a state or local government, for which it promises to pay you back an amount at some date in the future - potentially as long as 30 years in the future. How do you know if the municipality will be able to make good...

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By John R. Mousseau, CFA The muni bond market has been on a tear so far this year. Not only have yields dropped, but they have dropped relative to US Treasuries across the board. The chart below shows where we are now and where we were at the start of the year. The big squeeze has been...

By Cooper J Howard The municipal bond market is off to its hottest start in five years, led by the lower-rated segments of the muni market. It may be tempting to chase returns, but we suggest that investors instead take a cautious approach and focus on higher-rated issuers during the secon...

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