MCEF News and Press, First Trust Municipal CEF Income Opportunity ETF

First Trust Advisors L.P. (“FTA”) announced today shareholders of First Trust Municipal CEF Income Opportunity ETF (Nasdaq: MCEF) (the “Fund”), a series of First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VIII (the “Trust”), voted at a shareholder meeting to ap...

Rating agencies reported that upgrades outpaced downgrades in 2021. The decline in the stock market produced concern that pension funding may decline, and the rise in inflation may reduce benefits. The shorter bonds can be sold to take advantage of large outflows from mutual funds...

Investors who look to bonds for safety and modest returns just received a brutal lesson in the perils of unexamined optimism. Basic investment doctrine holds that a trend of rising rates creates losses for existing bondholders. Surging inflation in Europe will soon be putting the ...

While the municipal bond market generally follows rate changes in the U.S. Treasury market, it does not move in lockstep. A contributing factor is that the tax exemption is valuable in all rate and tax environments to many types of investors. We believe it is likely that 2022 will...

The first quarter of 2022 is ending in the largest bond market sell-offs since 1994. The Federal Reserve has begun to tighten short-term interest rates with a hike in the Federal funds target rate from 0%–0.25% to 0.25%-0.5%. We are starting to see some signs that inflation...

Municipals posted negative performance in February amid heightened monetary policy and geopolitical uncertainty. Attractive valuations helped munis modestly outperform comparable U.S. Treasuries. The S&P Municipal Bond Index returned -0.51% for the month and -2.89% year-to-date. ...

Emerging Markets are outperforming the rest of the world, due in large part to windfall profits in the commodities-exporting countries of South America and the Middle East. If you want to follow the money, this is a good place to start. Money has been flowing out of tech, consumer dis...

First Trust Advisors L.P. (“FTA”) announced today that the special shareholder meeting for First Trust Municipal CEF Income Opportunity ETF (Nasdaq: MCEF) (the “Fund”), a series of First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VIII (the “Trust”), has been ad...

Non-U.S. markets, including EM, DM, and Asia, are outperforming the U.S. markets after underperforming last year. After slightly underperforming growth last year, value is where the money is flowing. With the economy still in growth mode, cyclical stocks should do better than defe...

In January 2022, volatility in the muni bond market picked up as yields saw their largest increase since the first quarter of 2021. Fundamentals in the municipal bond market today remain sound, while technicals — although slightly weaker as of late — look healthy to us. ...