Muni ETFs Suffer Record Outflows
January 23rd at 1:00pm by Tom Lydon
Despite signs that the market was becoming more stable, municipal bond exchange traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds suffered their largest outflows ever last week.
Investors nabbed $4 billion out of municipal bond funds; the last record for outflows was set in November, when the funds lost $3.1 billion.
That brings the 10-week losing streak total to $20 billion, says Ignites.
The outflows continue even though a majority of advisors, portfolio managers and economists don’t believe that a slew of defaults will occur. They do acknowledge that the probability of defaults has gone up, writes Jessica Toonkel for Investment News. Only $8.2 billion in muni defaults has come to pass in a $2.8 trillion market as of Dec. 10, said MMA managing director Matt Fabian, and only three defaults have occurred this year.
