MMIT News and Press, IQ MacKay Municipal Intermediate From 06/03/22

Municipal bond investors increasingly want to apply environmental, social, and governance considerations to their portfolios. Some muni investors may want to apply ESG screening to avoid specific issuers based on personal considerations and values. Muni impact investing can target...

U.S. municipal bond market investors have seen a challenging first half of the year. The municipal market will continue to be pressured by the Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) monetary policy. We believe the muni asset class provides a very attractive investment opportunity...

In this review, I take a look at the muni market. This has been a sector I have favored for a long time. Due to rising inflation and yields, I turned cautious on munis (and fixed-income as a whole) in 2021. When an expected sell-off occurred in 2022, I returned to a bullish stance. ...

The Treasury yield curve has seen a considerable shift up since the beginning of the year. Today, the 10-year Treasury note is trading in line with the Fed’s expected neutral rate, and there are signs traditional bond-equity correlations are returning. Due in large part to ...

Children in high poverty areas are two and a half times more likely to get lead poisoning than children in low poverty areas. Newark is one of the few success stories out there. One of the investments made over the last year was in a large water utility system in the Northeast. ...

The war in Ukraine clearly triggered the spike in oil prices and in agricultural prices as well. Inflation, interest rates and Fed policy are linked. Similarly, supply chain disruptions, the slowdown in China, and big-tech reversals are all Covid-related. The bottom line right now...

Municipals posted another month of negative total returns amid vastly rising interest rates. Supply-and-demand dynamics weighed on the market, but should improve in the coming months. Valuations look increasingly attractive relative to other fixed income asset classes. For f...

Stolen, plundered, looted, and the list goes on. It is what has happened to our portfolios since the beginning of the year. Bonds, equities, you name it. While the Fed’s policies may well help our rate of inflation, now at 9.75%, averaging the PPI and the CPI, I do not see high...

In the long-term cycle of municipal bond fund flows, extended periods of withdrawals can often help improve valuations across the marketplace, creating more appealing entry points to invest. Muni outflow cycles have created an expanded set of opportunities for active fund managers in ...

We’re in the midst of a pretty significant outflow cycle - $20 billion-plus out of the municipal asset class to start the year. The impact on prices has been further compounded by tax-related selling. There’s also an increase in supply on the horizon. Major muni indi...