The Muni-Market's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year
- Falling sales squeeze underwriters while investors see losses
- ‘It’s a bumpy time when rates are going up," investor says
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
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This year is turning out to be one many in the municipal-bond world would rather forget.
Thanks to a federal tax-overhaul that caused a rush to borrow last year and curbed governments’ ability to refinance debt, new bond sales have shrunk by 20 percent, cutting deeply into underwriting fees. Trading is down. Demand has dropped from some of the market’s major buyers, banks and insurers, because tax rates were lowered. And with interest rates headed higher, the securities have handed investors a loss of 1.4 percent, marking the worst start to a year since 1996.