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There Are A Lot Of Muni Bonds In This New ETF
Friday, May 17, 2019 - 9:37am | 515Read More...Some municipal bond exchange traded funds hold a lot of those bonds, but many of those funds focus on certain types of municipal debt or specific durations and maturities. A new ETF offers investors a unique approach to increasing the depth and diversity of their municipal bond exposure. What...
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Illinois Stumbles In Effort To Better Bond Rating: 'Deadbeat Of The Country'
Thursday, March 7, 2019 - 5:02pm | 918Read More...When J.B. Pritzker, Illinois' new Democratic governor, proposed his first budget, he warned that getting the state’s troubled finances in order would be a long-term project. “It took decades to get us into this mess. It will take at least several years to get us out of it,” he...
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Muni Bonds On The Cheap With This Vanguard ETF
Saturday, February 23, 2019 - 4:53pm | 521Read More...Municipal bonds and the relevant exchange traded funds are prime destinations for conservative fixed-income investors. Some of these funds feature access to a wide range of municipal debt at favorable price points. That group includes the Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond ETF (NYSE: VTEB). What Happened...
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A New Professional Way To Play Preferreds
Friday, August 25, 2017 - 11:50am | 499Read More...With U.S. interest rates still near historic lows and other major developed markets sporting even more piddly sovereign debt yields, income investors continue embracing unique, high-yield asset classes such as preferred stocks. The universe of preferred exchange-traded funds grew Thursday with the...
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Who Is Buying Municipal Bonds?
Wednesday, March 29, 2017 - 8:12am | 457Read More...Interest rates are rising in the U.S., but remain well below an area that's considered historically average. In other major developed markets, benchmark borrowing costs are at or near record lows, or in some cases, negative. That is to say investors in ex-U.S. developed markets are looking for...
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Tax-Free Income And A Weekly Reset With This Muni ETF
Tuesday, November 8, 2016 - 3:00pm | 462Read More...The Federal Reserve could raise interest rates for the first time in 2016 next month, but one rate hike probably will not be enough to deter yield-seeking investors and some of their favored destinations, such as municipal bond exchange-traded funds. The combination of interest rates remaining...
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SEC's Investor Advocate Talks Municipal Bonds
Thursday, September 1, 2016 - 11:12am | 425Read More...The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advocate Rick Fleming recently gave a speech discussing the state of the the municipal securities market. Fleming noted approximately 41 percent of municipal bonds are owned by individual investors, while another 29 percent are owned by...
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Even In A Low-Yield Environment, Municipal Bonds May Nudge Out Other Taxable Assets
Thursday, June 30, 2016 - 11:11am | 283Read More...Despite record-low yields and growing concerns about the health of many U.S. local governments, Citi analyst Vikram Rai believes investors should still be buying municipal bonds. According to Rai, the situation is far from ideal, but municipal bonds offer advantages over other fixed-income...
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Meredith Whitney's Muni Market Call May Have Just Been 6 Years Too Early
Thursday, June 9, 2016 - 10:52am | 494Read More...Six years after Meredith Whitney told "60 Minutes" that municipal bonds were the “largest threat to the U.S. economy,” Whitney may finally be starting to feel some vindication. For years, Whitney was chastised by the Wall Street Journal and others for being totally wrong on her call for...
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A Complement To Boring Bond ETFs
Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - 9:09am | 513Read More...Many investors view bonds, particularly U.S. government debt and municipal bonds, as less than exciting. But boring has been beautiful in the fixed income world this year, as the Federal Reserve has consistently held off on raising interest rates. Of course, there are ways for investors to liven up...
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Municipal Bond ETFs Rebuff Weak Oil Prices
Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - 1:07pm | 467Read More...Oil prices are on the mend this year, but the United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (NYSE: USO) would need to more than triple to sniff its 2014 highs. USO, which tracks front-month West Texas Intermediate futures, would need to nearly quadruple to come within striking distance of its 2012 highs. Heading...
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A Bond ETF Idea For The Second Half
Monday, May 9, 2016 - 2:38pm | 515Read More...Among the fixed income exchange-traded funds that find themselves in the sweet spot thanks to the Federal Reserve consistently passing on another interest rate hike are municipal bond funds, particularly those of the longer-dated variety. Although there has been some chatter regarding the impact of...
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Muni Bond Expert Talks Black Monday, Puerto Rico
Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - 1:35pm | 434Read More...Cate Long was recently a guest on #PreMarket Prep, a daily trading idea radio show hosted by Joel Elconin and Dennis Dick. Trading municipal bond funds during a massive market-wide sell-off like the one seen on Monday may not be a top priority for most investors. However, Cate Long, a municipal...
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Oppenheimer Likes This Mortgage LP - A 'Tax Advantaged' Yield Over 12%
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 - 10:14am | 872Read More...If the Holy Grail for income investors is a dependable, high-yielding, tax-exempt dividend; then small-cap America First Multifamily Investors LP (NASDAQ: ATAX) is certainly worth a closer look. On May 11, Oppenheimer & Co. released a quarterly update maintaining its Outperform rating on...
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Why Detroit Won't Open A 'Floodgate' Of Municipal Bankruptcies
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 10:34am | 423Read More...Last Friday was a great day for Detroit, according to Cate Long, after a Federal judge approved the city’s bankruptcy exit plan. “It looks like the judge will sign off on this pretty quickly, and then Detroit can get to the business of implementing their new financial structure,...
