Fixed income

A federal funds rate stuck near zero means cash will continue to deliver negative real returns for some time. Who in their right mind, the standard Wall Street taunt goes, would own cash when it’s a guaranteed losing proposition?

Many large managers of municipal bond funds with Detroit paper said they haven't heard any panic from their investing clients since the city filed for bankruptcy and many of their funds have lost value.

Detroit’s bankruptcy filing means it’s time for advisors to reassess their holdings, says Warren Pierson, lead manager of Baird’s intermediate-term municipal bond fund, but not to over-react to what is sure to be a panicked client base.

Heavy outflows, at $1.56 billion, endure for municipal bond mutual funds as investor demand for tax-exempts continues to flag.

Municipal bond mutual funds continue to hemorrhage money as investor demand remains low.

Inflows to long-term mutual funds were $1.28 billion for the eight-day period ending Wednesday, July 10, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Pimco’s Bill Gross added to holdings of Treasuries in his flagship fund in June while betting incorrectly on gains in U.S. inflation- indexed securities during the first half of the year.

Bond funds netted redemptions of $59 billion (excluding exchange-traded funds) last month, according to Strategic Insight.

Morgan Stanley managing director Patrick Haskell has been appointed head of the institutional municipal business, the company announced this week. Haskell will oversee public finance and sales and trading in his new role.

U.S. fixed-income mutual funds attracted investor deposits last week, rebounding from redemptions spurred by speculation that the Federal Reserve would scale back its unprecedented stimulus, while bond exchange-traded funds had withdrawals.

Municipal bond fund outflows for the week of July 10 rose to $1.2 billion from $870 million the prior week.

Dozens of lawmakers are urging House leaders to reject proposals to eliminate or cap the exclusion for tax-exempt bonds.

Following last month's historic sell-off, the municipal market offers solid fundamentals and the most compelling value since 2011, additionally bolstered by the strong demand from July and August reinvestments and the demand from crossover buyers, BlackRock Inc. said in its July municipal report.

Advisors remain very bullish on U.S. equities and plan to allocate a greater percentage of their clients’ portfolios to the asset class over the next six months, according to a new survey by Aberdeen Asset Management.

Total assets in municipal bond funds rebounded after a week of record outflows, even as investors continued to redeem their cash for the sixth week in a row.

The recent market selloff battered municipal bonds unevenly, as those investors holding credits with higher coupons fared the best.

The muni market, reeling from one of the worst selloffs in 25 years this week, witnessed record-breaking outflows to muni bond funds of $4.53 billion for the week of June 26.

The Senate Finance Committee's top two tax writers asked their 98 colleagues on Thursday to submit detailed proposals justifying which tax breaks should be kept in the code as they move forward on comprehensive tax reform.

Tax-exempt money market funds had outflows of $314.7 million in the week ended June 24, decreasing total net assets to $261.48 billion, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Municipal bond mutual funds that report flows weekly recorded $4.53 billion in outflows for the week of June 26, Lipper FMI numbers showed, after $2.22 billion of outflows reported the previous week.