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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The market took a much-needed breather Friday and U.S. Treasuries pared Thursday's losses to see the 10-year fall 12 basis points to 1.42% and the 30-year 17 basis points to 2.11%. Municipals were steady at 1.14% in 10 years and 1.82% in 30.
By Lynne FunkFebruary 26 -
High-grade deals priced and secondary trading showed bonds exchanging hands at yields higher than triple-A benchmarks in some cases, but a healthy two-way flow was evident, even if there are signals that yields have not yet hit a ceiling.
By Lynne FunkFebruary 23 -
Muni yields rose another five basis points on the 10- and 30-year, bringing the total cuts to scales to 18 and 17 basis points, respectively, from Tuesday as the asset class moved closer to UST movements after lagging that market since the start of the year.
By Lynne FunkFebruary 19 -
Muni yields have climbed double-digit basis points in a week but technicals remain strong. Refinitiv Lipper reports $1.96 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds.
By Lynne FunkFebruary 18 -
With the U.S. Treasury sell off, municipal to UST ratios fell below 55% in 10-years.
February 16 -
Refinitiv Lipper reported $2.64 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds. The overwhelming demand for the large deals priced this week demonstrates the flood of available cash that continues to support a strong market.
By Lynne FunkFebruary 11 -
Even if there was some hesitation in the past few sessions to accept lower municipal yields given rich valuations, municipals continue grinding lower. One- and two-year AAA yields hit record lows of 0.06% and 0.08%, respectively.
By Lynne FunkFebruary 9 -
Joe Geraci, who spent 24 years at Citi, most recently as co-head of the Global Spread Products division, will join investment advisor Old Orchard Capital.
February 4 -
Attractive returns are pushing investors into high-yield at a time of historically low interest rates and a shortage of muni volume, but caution is warranted as COVID-19 still looms.
February 1 -
New issues priced with ease with high-grade issuers tight to triple-A benchmarks. It was the first time the municipal yield curve saw such noticeable movement, following little changed secondary activity for nearly the past two weeks.
January 26